LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 

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TL^rcUcL Vol- 2f. <fefc $ZJ- 



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V 



THE BLADE AND THE EAR 



THOUaHTS FOR A YOUNa MAN. 







BY 



MUZZEY. 




BOSTON: 
WM. V. SPENCER 

134 Washington Street. 
18 6 5. 



£S\tf' 






Entereii according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by 

ARTE MAS B. MUZZET, 
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



z. 



7- 



WnTHEOP PRESS. CAMBRIDGE: 
Allen Sc Farnham. 



PREFACE. 



This little book has been written in the hope 
of doing something for those who hold in their 
hands the destinies of our community and country. 
Its word is direct ; and comes from a heart that is 
still young, and in sympathy with all that is no- 
blest in those it addresses, while not inexperienced 
in the temptations here so plainly set forth. A 
youth once myself, I know full well both the as- 
pirations and the enticements of that period of life. 
If I seem to some an alarmist, they should reflect 
that age is fast introducing among us those vices 
that beset the old world. I have seen enough, at 
home and abroad, to convince me that our moral 
Mentors are in danger of losing sight of those sins 
which are the more terrible for their secrecy. 

(3) 



iv PREFACE. 

I have said many things in relation to the pres- 
ent struggle for our national life. May its speedy 
ancf successful termination, accompanied by a broad 
freedom and a lasting peace, soon render these the 
counsels of the past ; and inspire our young men 
with a fresh love of liberty with order; and brace 
them with an abiding moral, as well as mental 
vigor for the future. If any word of mine shall, 
under God, contribute to that great result, my ob- 
ject will be accomplished. 

Newburyport, Nov. 1, 1864. 



THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 



>X*c 



INTRODUCTION. 

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE YOUNG MAN. 

WITHIN THE few years, lying between the 
non-age of boyhood, — controlled, directed, 
impelled, or restrained by parental care, — and the 
crowning period of a full manhood, — responsible, 
self-reliant, and self-guiding, — are compressed those 
moulding, shaping, all-decisive influences, which make 
or mar the future man. The horticulturist is pleased 
to see his trees clad in the bright livery of a copious 
blossom ; but his chief anxiety is, that the tree set 
well for fruit. When the blossom of school-day 
lessons, Sabbath-teachings, a mother's prayers and 
influences, and a father's counsels are past, — " How 
do the young man's blooming traits and qualities 
now set ? " — that is the question of all questions. 
1 



2 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

Such, manifestly, was the view of the Apostle 
John. " I have written unto you, young men," he 
says, " because ye are strong," — a reason pertinent 
then, and pertinent in all ages. 

Time was when the aged, the Nestors and Priams,' 
bore the chief sway among men. Once, too, those 
in middle life were looked to for counsel, and were 
deferred to by their juniors. But, with the advance 
of the world, the controlling power of men and 
affairs has passed, more and more, into the hands 
of our young men. Who of our own people take 
the van in the broad column that moves, steadily 
as the hours, into the fresh, untilled regions of the 
West ? And in commerce and manufactures, in the 
coercion of fire, water, wood, and iron, to the en- 
hancement of private and public wealth, who take 
the lead? Our young men. I have no question, 
that of the ten thousand inventions and patents of 
the day, the major part are the work of those not 
yet on the summit of life's hill. It is so in all 
occupations and pursuits, manual, intellectual, moral, 
and religious. 

He, therefore, who would do much for his race 
now, must address himself, primarily, not to the 
aged, nor yet to those in the meridian of life, but 
to the class just approaching the station and respon- 
sibilities of manhood. He must so arouse them to 



INTRODUCTION. 6 

a sense of their commanding position, and so im- 
press them with a sense of loyalty to God as well 
as to man, that, while they are stimulated, they 
shall not be intoxicated by the grandeur of their 
power and prospects. They shall be not only bold 
to embrace, but wise to pursue their glorious oppor- 
tunity ; and, while they go resolutely forward, shall 
be willing to take counsel of their elders, and to 
energy join prudence and discretion. 

In looking at the springs of influence in society, 
we sometimes imagine it is wielded chiefly by those 
in middle life. But such is not the law of this 
magic power. The very child moulds others to his 
own will and his own way. The boy, especially, 
leads off' in one direction or another ; he guides, per- 
haps often insensibly, but still he does guide and 
form, to a greater or less extent, those around him. 
It is so, we can all see, with the bad boy. Let any 
one, for example, in a school, use profane language, 
and though it may shock many on the first hearing, 
yet very soon one and another are heard uttering 
the half-oath ; — and now this or that boy ripens 
to the bold swearer. So do untruthfulness and de- 
ception propagate their own kind. A boy who 
defrauds his employer, cannot keep it to himself; 
he whispers to others, and boasts of his success; 
and the method is soon learned, and the sin soon 



4 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

practised by them. And, on the other hand, he 
who is pure enough to love the right, and has the 
courage to put it steadily in execution, will never 
pass unheeded. Steel is not more true to the mag- 
net, than the incorrupt to feel this polar attraction. 
As with the child, so with the youth ; no one can, if 
he would, at that period, live wholly to himself. If 
the evil he does is noticed and imitated, so also, to 
some extent at least, will be the good. No one can 
look without interest on a conscientious young man. 
See him ride like a bright star across the moral 
heavens, breaking through the clouds of allurement 
and sin, and shining out in his sphere ; now tempted, 
but resisting, straggling, and, at last, coming forth 
clear. Meteors may rise, flash, and fall all around 
him ; but he holds steadfastly on his course. And 
no one, I repeat, can see such a spectacle with in- 
difference ; it fixes the eye ; it wins the soul. 

A virtuous youth, true to God and true to himself, 
is an IthuriePs spear, testing the worth of all around 
him ; and to one and another he is a Heaven-directed 
power, awakening in their bosoms noble resolutions, 
and spurring them on to high, moral excellence. 

For many and cogent reasons, we look on this 
period with special regard. We are won to it by 
its peculiar characteristics. 

It is an impressible age. Good and evil now stand 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

and knock at the door; let the one be admitted, 
and it proves an angel of light ; while the other no 
sooner crosses the threshold, than, with rebel fierce- 
ness, menace, pillage, and bloodshed ensue. The 
character and habits then take what Dr. Paley calls 
a " holding turn." Then the feelings are fresh and 
strong, and the views plastic. The interior forces 
are moving forward with a speed and a power on 
which we can seldom look without mingled emotions. 
" Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy 
heart cheer thee ; " u but," whispers the voice of 
experience, " know, that for all these things God 
will bring thee into judgment." 

This is an age, with some, of noble aspirations; 
with all, of burning desires. Now, the soul is fired 
with an intense desire for happiness. Who will show 
me how best to enjoy myself? ask the many. 
With most of our youth, the primal craving is to be 
a man. No problem is so important, therefore, as 
this, — Who is a real man ? What constitutes true 
manliness? To be a man, some say, is to put on a 
bold air, and walk large, to don a full-sized coat, and 
to use swelling words with a tinge of profanity. 

But to me, I confess, this conception savors, not 

of the man, but of the stereotyped boy ; one too weak 

to put away childish things. To be a man is not to 

saunter about in idleness ; it is not to lean proudly 

1* 



6 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

on one's birth and blood. Neither is it simply to 
enter into business for one's self; nor yet to accu- 
mulate a certain amount of property ; nor yet to seek 
and reach this or that position ; nor even to grow 
in intellect, while the heart and soul are morally 
dwarfed. 

True manliness is power to say to the solicitations 
of evil, come they in what form they may, " Get 
thee behind me, Satan. " Washington showed him- 
self a man at the age of thirteen. Among the rules 
he then adopted, we find these : " Labor to keep alive 
in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called 
conscience." "Let your recreations be manful, not 
sinful." And, to show his regard for a sincere piety, 
he. wrote thus : " When you speak of God or his 
attributes, let it be seriously and in reverence." 

Next to devotion to God, true manliness demands 
fidelity to our race. To maltreat any human being, 
is to insult the image of God. The more truly we 
honor all men, the laborer no less than the capitalist, 
rich and poor, high and low, bond and free, the more 
ready we are to act well our part as neighbors, citi- 
zens, patriots, and philanthropists, the greater is our 
manliness. The younger Adams was not only de- 
vout, always, as he said, repeating, before he closed 
his eyes at night, the brief and simple prayer taught 
him by his mother, even on to his old age, — but 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

he was also a Christian in the practical walks of 
every-day life. And he died, as he had lived, the 
friend of liberty and of his race. Let every young 
man who burns, as he reads his biography, with the 
same noble aspirations, go and do like him. 

This period of life is interesting for the strength 
of will it usually exhibits. That strength may, it is 
true, be given to the service of sin. It is melan- 
choly to notice how juvenile offenders have increased 
in our courts of justice ; the annals of crime in our 
time, and in many cities, are crowded with the names 
of the young. 

We never contemplate the mighty forces of youth, 
without joining in the sentiment, " Precious is youth- 
ful energy, could it be inglobed till the youth reaches 
the temple of virtue and truth ! But, alas, all along 
he must advance through an avenue of tempters 
and demons, all prompt to touch him, and draw 
away that divine, electric element, with which he is 
charged." 

Another characteristic of our young men is inde- 
pendence. They think for themselves, in the main, 
more than childhood can, more than manhood gener- 
ally does. They may, and often do, make mistakes ; 
but we sometimes feel that it is better to fall into a 
little error occasionallv, when thinking for one's self, 
than to keep mechanically and imitatively right. 



8 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

" A living dog is better than a dead lion." He who 
has a root in himself, is likely to recover from his 
errors and follies ; while one who rushes blindly on 
with the multitude, commands little respect, and de- 
serves the mental and moral degradation that earlier 
or later usually befalls him. 

An independent man is a real man ; and that is 
what we want in a world like this. It is easy to 
lose one's soul in the forms around us. To know 
any of these as realities, we must begin by being real 
in our own will, conscience, and personal energy. 
Then we may go on through eternity, mining deeper 
and deeper, and in endless diversities of direction, in 
a region of inexhaustible realities. 

The young man is marked by his enthusiasm. 
This world is a scene of toils and difficulties ; and 
the meed of earth, be it gain, renown, place, or 
power, can be secured only by stern labor. There 
is so much to dishearten, oppress, and keep down 
the soul, that it needs a constant and ever-accumu- 
lating force to sustain and brace our energies.* God 
has placed this vital power eminently in the hearts 
of our young men. He has gifted them with a fire- 
winged hope. Let the present be dark as it may, 
they see always the crepuscular rays of a coming 
light. Let a new era be announced for suffering 
humanity, and their hearts leap forth to greet the 



INTRODUCTION, 9 

glad future. Selfishness has not yet dimmed their 
native vision ; cold words have not chilled their early- 
glow ; the sneer of the sceptic, the pride of the 
haughty, the frowns of an iron-clad past, the sordid 
interests of a soulless present, have not yet frozen 
over their inner life-current. 

This is the spirit the world always needs to carry 
forward its noblest works. It is not indeed too much 
to say, that " The healthy condition of the mind is 
one of eternal youth and responsiveness to the multi- 
form, outward creation. This should be to us all a 
divine universe, unveiling itself alike in gloom and 
in splendor, in auroral light and in many-tinted 
shadows ; " full of hope, and fall of awe, as it always 
is to a young, sympathetic heart, a heart that will 
never grow old. 

Our young men are of vital importance to the 
community from their spirit of enterprise. The bane 
of all progress, individual or social, is irresolution and 
timidity. We pronounce things too difficult for our 
abilities, when the truth is, they often appear diffi- 
cult because we have not courage to undertake them. 
The old are sometimes fearful and over-cautious ; and 
those in middle life sometimes hesitate and delay, till 
the opportunity for success is lost. 

It is the young who put their hands most readily 
to every great and good work. Sometimes, it is true, 



10 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

they are rash and precipitate, and do unwise things. 
But it is better to do some harm, than to do no good. 
The great obstacle, — how often do we see this, — 
the great obstacle to success and victory, is that we 
are too faint-hearted to begin. " Who sets about 
hath half-performed the deed." We want the spirit 
of John Adams, who, contemplating the glorious 
Declaration of Independence, said, " Sink or swim, 
live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and 
my heart for this vote." The power and determina- 
tion here shown, have been seen, in not a few young 
men, in all ages and all countries. Aurungzebe, the 
mighty ruler of Hindostan, a man who had thirty- 
five million pounds for his revenue, whose empire 
extended over twenty-five degrees of latitude and as 
many of longitude, who put to death twenty millions 
of people, whose course was said to be" stupendous 
as the Alps, and sublime as a cataract," — was dis- 
tinguished in his youth for thought, and for deep 
plans and bold purposes ; and in his twentieth year, 
he raised a body of troops, and finally forced his way 
to the throne of the Decan. 

Young men are marked by their love of truth. 
They are not as yet petrified by prejudice. When 
Harvey broached his theory of the circulation of the 
blood, it met with violent opposition ; and no one, 
it is said, accepted his theory, who was over forty 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

years of age. The simple love of truth, regardless 
of educational biases, of parent, friend, sect, or party, 
is the rarest of spectacles ; and often it vanishes with 
the appetite of the boy. 

So of strict honesty ; it is the crown of one's early 
days. " Your son will not do for me," was once 
said to a friend of mine ; " he took pains, the other 
day, to tell a customer of a small blemish in a piece of 
goods." The salesboy is sometimes virtually taught 
to declare that goods cost such or such a sum ; that 
they are strong, fashionable, perfect, when the whole 
story is false. So is the bloom of a God-inspired 
truthfulness not seldom brushed from the cheek of 
our simple-hearted children. 

I hope and trust these cases are rare ; but even 
one such house as I allude to, may ruin the integrity 
and the fair fame of many a lad. God grant our 
young men to feel that an " Honest man is the no- 
blest work of God," and, under all temptations, to 
live as they feel. 

To what period of life can we turn for such dis- 
plays, as this often affords, of generosity, frankness, 
and magnanimity? True, we differ, from our very 
childhood, in the possession of these traits. But 
no one can deny, that, on the whole, these and all 
the finer feelings predominate in the earlier periods 
of life. Our Saviour often sought the society of 



12 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

those at this age ; and he not seldom exerted on them 
his miraculous powers. And he poured out, not only 
on childhood, but on such as the youthful John, and 
many others of a like early attractiveness, his un- 
exhausted and inexhaustible love. 

Young men are social, seldom cynical and self- 
enclosed, like those in after life, who become absorbed 
in gain and power. This trait may, and often does, 
expose them to evil associates and to their degrading 
vices. Still, it is the basis of much that is highest 
and noblest in human conduct. It needs only to rest 
on the Rock of Ages, and it will rise on and on, 
amid every seduction and snare, winning all hearts, 
and shedding forth continually a healing fragrance, 
that earth cannot bound. 

We look with interest on our young men, because 
in them dwells a love of perfection. To accomplish 
any thing that is great or good, we must, in the first 
place, set our standard high. And, to do tins, we 
must be fired with a thirst for excellence. In the 
celebrated Melrose Abbey, the hidden portions of the 
work are finished minutely and elegantly ; the whole 
being evidently considered by the artist as an act of 
religious worship, in which he offered up his best 
faculties to the praise of his Creator. Such, I be- 
lieve, is the desire of every unper verted youth. He 
would fain possess, not only external graces and com- 



i 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

mendations, but an interior, genuine, thorough good- 
ness. Pretence, affectation, and insincerity, he holds 
in contempt and scorn. 

And, in regard to a love of the works of nature, 
they are enjoyed at this age, because they shadow 
forth that moral beauty, toward which the soul then 
aspires. For the same reason, the productions of art 
and taste are now objects of interest. I do not know 
who was the author of the prize Ode to the Greek 
Slave, that exquisite piece of statuary by Powers ; 
but I feel confident that only a young man could 
have penned such glorious lines as these : 

" Greek ! by more than Moslem fetters thralled ! 
O marble prison of a radiant thought, 

Where life is half revealed, 
And beauty dwells, created, not enwrought. 
Severe in vestal grace, yet warm 
And flexible with the delicate glow of yOuth, 
She stands, the sweet embodiment of truth ; 
Her pure thoughts clustering round her form, 

Like seraph garments. 
Go then, fair slave ! and in thy fetters teach 
What Heaven inspired, and Genius hath designed. 
Be thou evangel of true art, and preach 
The freedom of the mind ! " 

I regard our young men with hope, because in 
them lie all the possibilities of the future. They 
constitute the great link in that interminable chain 

2 



14 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

of forces which binds things past with things to 
come. The Hebrew seer speaks of an era in which 
the sons and daughters shall prophesy, and the 
young men shall see visions. This prediction has 
an ever-repeated fulfilment in the successive genera- 
tions of our youth. Always, in a higher or lower 
sense, they see, portrayed on the canvas of the fu- 
ture, scenes to quicken the pulse, to kindle the im- 
agination, and rouse every power and faculty of our 
nature to its in tensest action. 

Nor is it a mere vision that lies before them. In 
that sacred drama, they are to be themselves actors. 
As its unseen shapes and shadows are evolved into 
substantial realities, their figures will advance to the 
foreground ; and either shine along the glowing can- 
vas with moral lustre, or, by their fallen and guilty 
courses, spread the blackness of darkness on its 
lines. 

It is no fiction, but a fearful fact, it is no conjec- 
ture, but a solemn certainty, that what one is before 
the age of twenty-five, he is almost sure to be his 
life long. His education may have been good ; will 
it be carried out in his manhood ? The great uni- 
verse waits for his reply. Or, his early culture may 
have been defective ; who can supply those defects ? 
The finger of destiny, guided by the Eternal, all- 
seeing, and all-judging One, points to his own bosom, 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

with the fearful words, " Thou art the man." Good 
or evil, which will you obey ? " The heart of flesh," 
a tender susceptibility to virtue, honor, truth, and 
religion; or the u heart of stone," dead to every noble 
aspiration, content to herd with the vulgar, profane, 
sensual, and selfish ; clay, that may be fashioned to a 
vessel of honor, or made into a demon shape of dis- 
honor and death, — choose between the two. When 
will the decision come? God help you, my young 
brother, to say, It shall be to-day. 



II. 

THE YOUNG MAN AT HOME. 

NO WORD in our language is so fraught with 
grateful and enduring reminiscences, as the word 
home. It touches chords which vibrate to the last 
pulse of our lives ; it weaves a spell over every scene 
and every experience ; and paints on the chambers of 
our imagery, pictures that neither time nor change 
can efface. We recall the dear faces that greeted our 
childhood, the fireside where we first sat, its ocean 
prospect, or the green fields and the limpid brook, 
and the bending trees, and the heaven-bright flowers, 
amid which we enjoyed each care-free sport. 

And, throughout every period of life, that one spot 
comes back, to heighten each new pleasure, to soothe 
our anxieties, and to diffuse a serenity, as we taste 
each bitter cup. That dear mother, how she still 
smiles upon us, and utters those sweet tones in our 
world- tried ear. That venerated father, again he 
leads us by the wayside, and guides and guards our 
early days. Brothers and sisters, they come back 

(16) 



THE YOUNG MAN AT HOME. 17 

as on the Sabbath we trod, with punctual step, the 
church-worn path ; as we sat round the paternal 
board ; or gathered at nightfall to repeat the well- 
known Scripture passages and sing our familiar 
hymns. Amid misfortune and calamity, there is a 
sun that never sets. Let all other springs of happi- 
ness fail us, there are living waters. Over the chills 
of a cold world, we feel that ever fresh and warm 
breath ; and no neglect, disappointments, or aliena- 
tions can obliterate the memory of its fadeless joys. 

Home is, moreover, a Christian word; heathen 
lands know not the blessings it encircles ; and in 
vain does the missionary think to plant the gospel 
firmly where domestic virtue is an unknown thing. 

As regards the interest which the members of a 
family have in the characters of each other, this spot 
is of paramount concern. Whatever relations we 
sustain among a circle of kindred, there is an indi- 
visible bond of sympathy between them and our- 
selves. "We are daily exerting over them, or receiving 
from them, an influence in this respect, for good or 
for evil, of illimitable extent. Their honor and their 
peace and happiness are bound up m our particular 
dispositions and in our deportment, not only toward 
them personally, but everywhere, in all situations, 
and on all occasions. Hence the qualities and the 
conduct of a young man affect the reputation and 

2* 



18 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

the entire prosperity, inward and outward, of his 
kindred and home. 

God has implanted in us a regard for human esti- 
mation, which, when rightly directed and duly re- 
strained, is a laudable motive of action. But, without 
virtue, we cannot secure the approbation of others. 
It is real worth alone to which the world at large, 
and on the whole, accord this meed. And, as with 
individuals, so with families, they have always a char- 
acter and reputation at stake. And so inseparably 
are all that compose the same household united in 
this respect, that, while the excellence of one mem- 
ber redounds to the praise of all, the vices of one 
bring discredit, and sometimes disgrace, on the whole. 

Nothing is more common than, when a son has 
committed some flagrant offence, to infer, before our 
acquaintance with his connections, that they must be 
somewhat like himself. His parents, it is forthwith 
argued, must have set him a pernicious example ; or, 
at least, they must have been grossly neglectful of his 
moral education. And his brothers also, the circum- 
stances of the case being wholly unknown, are 
brought into suspicion by his misdemeanor. As we 
look at the young transgressor, we naturally con- 
clude, since he is fresh from his home, he now bears 
the impress there given him. I do not say that 
such opinions always prove correct. We ought, un- 



THE YOUNG MAN AT HOME. 19 

doubtedly, to know the whole case before passing 
this grave censure. But so the world in general 
does not ; and every young man must take the world 
as it is, not as it ought to be. If he consent to fall 
into vicious courses, he must do it, knowing that it 
will cast a blot on the scene of his birth. He thus 
not only sacrifices his own good name, but, step by 
step, he degrades his family also. I think too well 
of our youth to believe that they can deliberately 
do this. Let any one, however strong his propensi- 
ties to evil, and however tempted by corrupt com- 
panions, see distinctly, that if he yields, he will not 
only go down to ruin and woe himself, but carry 
with him, to a fearful extent, the kind and the pure, 
those nearest and dearest to him on earth, and he 
will stay his hand. In the dignity of a disinterested 
virtue, he will say to the tempter : " How can I do 
this wickedness against the honor, and to the dis- 
grace of that spot, which not only conscience and 
principle, but every affection of nature, bids me hold 
sacred ? " 

The welfare of man, in all respects, is intimately 
involved in his domestic connections. In the family 
alone can there be that intercourse of heart with 
heart, which falls like refreshing dew on the soul that 
is withered and parched by the heats of business and 
the intense selfishness of the world. Domestic pri- 



20 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

vacy is not only essential to happiness, but, Tinder 
God, it is the very nerve of one's efficiency and 
power. It gives the rest necessary to the active 
operations of judgment and discrimination. It keeps 
enclosed those well-springs of the heart, whose flow 
is essential to float on the determinations of the 
head. 

The family is a divine institution ; and, by the very 
act of establishing it, Providence has distinctly taught, 
that he who fulfils its demands w T ith fidelity, shall 
enjoy a high measure of all that is most desirable 
elsewhere on earth ; and, if faithful to God, no 
secondary station in the kingdom of heaven. The 
prevalence of a pure worship is connected with the 
success of this institution. And morality, and the 
order and well-being of the whole civil community, 
depend closely on the general extension of the fireside 
virtues. 

To this quarter we must look for the chief element 
of national prosperity. " What France most needs,'' 
said the first Napoleon Bonaparte, " is mothers ; " 
and that is her need still : for the very word home 
has not its corresponding term in the French lan- 
guage. New England, on the other hand, owes her 
early and her latter glory to the Christian family. 

To illustrate our subject, let us look at some of the 
special relations of home. The filial bond touches 



THE YOUNG MAN AT HOME. 21 

sentiments deeper and more enduring than any other 
upon earth. It connects us with the guardians of 
our infancy, the guides of our childhood, and the 
monitors of our youth. How many sleepless hours, 
and with what unequalled anxieties did the mother 
that bore us, watch over our endearing weakness ! 
Before we could conceive the strength of her love, 
or imagine her unwearied care and her measureless 
sacrifices for our sake, what a debt did we already 
owe her ! She first taught us of that Being from 
whose hand we came ; and to her sweet voice, we 
responded in our first reverential address to Him. 
The good mother watches the waking intellect of 
her children ; and their moral culture more and 
more absorbs her mind. When a son leaves home 
to pursue his studies, or seek an avocation, her bene- 
dictions go with him ; and her supplication is, that 
amid all perils and temptations he may be saved. 
Should he yield to vice, he is still her son ; he may 
forget her, but she will not, she cannot forget him. 
How can that dear boy, of whom she hoped so much, 
sit in the seat of the scorner, and be given over to 
profaneness and profligacy? If, for any cause, he 
departs from the path of purity, the aspiration of her 
secret heart continually is, " Oh that, with the prod- 
igal's steps, he would return to the ways of honor 
and virtue." Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, 



22 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

" could not believe," she said, " that the son of so 
many tears and prayers would be finally cast away." 
Rather had the true parent have laid that form in 
the silent dust, than that he should live on only to 
sacrifice body and soul to guilty courses. She does 
still hope that some thought of childhood's scenes 
and parental lessons will yet melt him to repentance. 
And how would she then bid him welcome to her 
arms and her heart, and with her last breath beg 
God to keep him from again falling. 

It is this blessed spirit which gives home its great 
formative and restraining power. Hence it is, that 
the teachings and example and prayers of the parent 
exert a deep and ever-abiding influence. Impressions 
from other sources may fade away, but these remain ; 
they cleave to the heart, and prompt to good, and 
hold back from evil. One may go to distant cities, 
and in the midst of worldliness and frivolities, yes, 
where profanity, intemperance, gaming and licen- 
tiousness spread their snares around him, the voice 
of parental love bids him watch well, and, from the 
lurid West, look to the clear and hallowed East. In 
foreign lands, he feels a mother's gentle hand stay 
him from the downward path. Multitudes have been 
saved from profligacy and ruin by the influences of a 
virtuous home. Not a few, too, owe their escape 
from scepticism and infidelity to its sacred influence. 



THE YOUNG MAN AT HOME. 23 

Said the noted John Randolph, " I once took the 
French side in politics ; and I should have been a 
French atheist, if it had not been for one recollection ; 
and that was the memory of the time when my de- 
parted mother used to take my little hands in hers, 
and cause me on my knees to say, 4 Our Father, who 
art in heaven.' " 

It has been observed that the greatest and best 
men the world has produced, have usually owed 
much to the influence of a good mother. We may 
often see her stamp on the brow of the scholar, giv- 
ing vigor and persistence to the historian, and genius 
to the essayist, and inspiration to the poet. Said 
Raphael, " When I take my pencil for lofty and 
holy purpose, the spirit of my mother hovers over 
me." Rubens, while yet a youth, was called to part, 
by her death, with that honored mother, who had 
been, he felt, the life and inspiration of his genius ; 
and so did the loss overwhelm his sensitive and grate- 
ful spirit, that he retired to an abbey, and spent 
many months mourning her departure. 

To a good mother the patriot often owes every 
emotion he feels of disinterested love for his country ; 
and to her the hero is indebted for courage and vie- 

CD 

tory. She forms the embryo statesman ; and prompts 
to wisdom and energy and eloquence at the hustings, 
at the forum, on the platform, and at the bar. The 



24 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

philanthropist doubtless drew his love of humanity 
and his zeal and patience in doing good from this 
self-immolating spirit. And the accomplished Chris- 
tian, that " highest style of man," faithful to God, to 
the Redeemer, and to the calls of each primal duty, 
he, too, looks back in thankfulness to the sweet and 
holy care of -a mother, teaching him, in the thick 
shades of life's tempting scenes, to watch and pray. 

" I have met with a hard fortune in this world," 
said a young man, in conversing once with me, 
" there have been times when I felt as if I had not a 
friend upon earth. But I would think of my mother, 
and my heart was cheered. For I could always go 
home, and pour out my troubles into her bosom ; and 
she would listen, and sympathize with me. She 
would give me good advice, and inspire me with 
courage to try again, and to bear whatever disap- 
pointments might afterward come upon me." Next 
to the very arm of God, there is no such tower of 
strength as a good mother's heart. 

And the faithful father, what has he not done and 
felt for his children? From that dependent period, 
when the eye first beamed with affection, and the 
tongue lisped in unformed accents, it was he, who 
shared a mother's solicitude and watchfulness and de- 
vices for our childish gratification. To his often anx- 
ious and corroding toils we owed our very subsistence. 



THE YOUNG MAN AT HOME 25 

From him we received counsel, encouragement, and 
kind admonitions in our youth. His was the bounty 
that gave us the means of mental education, and pre- 
pared us for a future avocation. 

To both parents, when faithful, a child is indebted 
beyond estimation. If one begin to enumerate their 
claims, to set in order their labors, and recount their 
sacrifices and privations, he is soon compelled to 
desist from his task. He is constrained to acknowl- 
edge, that their love for him is surpassed only by 
that of the great Spring of all good, whom, — to rep- 
resent in the strongest language our measureless 
indebtedness to Him, — we call^ " Our Father in 
heaven." 

Every true son and daughter asks, in view of these 
facts : What return can I make /or such services ? 
How can I repay the kindnesses of my parents? 
Only let the way be pointed out, and there is nothing 
I would not do or bear, to requite these unwearied 
benefactors. 

We are struck, in reading the history of Jesus, 
with his devotion to his parents in his early life. 
They were in a lowly estate ; for he was taunted as 
the son of a carpenter. They had neither wealth 
nor distinction. And yet, in his childhood and youth, 
he was strictly subject unto them. From the earliest 
to the latest moment of his life, he was true to his 

3 



26 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

mother. It was at her request that he wrought a 
miracle at Cana ; and, when hanging on the cross, in 
an interval from anguish, he commended that mother 
to the disciple he loved. If the Son of God thought 
it not degrading to care for a mother, but loved, 
noticed, and provided for her to the last, should we, 
by any circumstances whatever, be estranged from 
our parents? No, in their honor or dishonor, their 
competence or their poverty, in their age and sick- 
ness, amid all their errors and weaknesses, on and on 
to their departure, by our utmost devotedness we 
cannot fill the measure of the debt we owe them. 

The first tribute % son can pay to a parent is rev- 
erence. We live in an age marked by its lack of 
veneration. Old institutions, however sacred, are 
now fearlessly, and often wantonly, assailed ; the aged 
are not treated with deference; arid fathers and 
mothers are addressed with rudeness. The command 
now runs, one would think, not in the good old tenor 
of the Bible, " Children, obey your parents in the 
Lord, for this is right," but thus : Parents, obey your 
children. Some may go so far as to say, this is right. 
" Why should I, who am so much superior to my 
father and my mother, bow down before them ? 
Were they equal to me ; did they appear as well in 
society ; and, especially, were they not in destitute 
circumstances, I could respect them. But " — my 



THE YOUNG MAN AT HOME. 27 

young friend, pause — God, nature, and humanity 
forbid you to pursue this strain. Because our parents 
are poor, are we absolved from all obligations to love 
and respect them ? Nay, if our father was in narrow 
circumstances, and still did all that he could for us, we 
owe him, instead of less regard, an hundred fold the 
more. If our mother, with scanty means, could pro- 
mote our comfort and train us up as she did, then, 
for the sake of reason, of right, of common com- 
passion, let us not despise her in her need. 

The son pleads, perhaps, that his parents were not 
so well-educated as himself; they do not know so 
much ; their language is sometimes ungrammatical ; 
they are not so refined as they should be ; then why 
respect them ? What must be the state of that young 
man's heart, who can forget all the virtues, the solid 
acquisitions of a parent, made by his own efforts, and 
therefore of the worthiest character, and all his kind- 
ness to himself, because he lacks certain graces and 
accomplishments? Is it nothing that this parent 
stinted himself to furnish his son the means of his 
superior education ? What has he, that he did not 
receive ? Why, then, is he puffed up as though he 
had not received it ? And, even though a parent 
has obvious faults, the filial sentiment forbids us to 
withhold that respect which the relation itself always 
demands. A son that is true to his duty, instead of 



28 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

dwelling upon and magnifying such faults, will strive 
to palliate and overlook them. We owe this to those 
who, whatever their errors and deficiencies, have still 
laid on us a weight of obligations we can never 
remove. Should trouble or sickness have shattered 
the nerves of a father, and rendered him impatient 
and irascible, and even offensive to others, do not 
you be harsh with him. Though he has not done all 
for you that he might have done ; yes, and even 
though vice have sullied his reputation, never rum 
against him. Under all circumstances, nature bids 
us be considerate and kind to a father and mother, 
because they are our father and mother. However 
high you may rise, be of that noble band, 

" Who soar, but never roam, 
True to the kindred points of heaven and home." 

Heron, in his Tales, tells us of a son, unnatural 
monster, who fed his aged father upon orts and 
crumbs, and lodged him in a garret, and clothed him 
in rags ; while he and his children lived in wealth 
and luxury 7 . He once bought him sackcloth enough 
to make two suits. The children took the part not 
made up and hid it. On being asked by their father 
why they did this, they told him they meant to keep 
it for him when he should " grow old, and walk with 
a stick." And if God had left that wretch in aged 



THE YOUNG MAN AT HOME. 29 

helplessness and poverty, and to the abuse of those 
who were bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, who 
could have challenged his justice ? 

I have alluded to the requital of our parents ; but 
the best of all compensations is that of a high, per- 
sonal character. The true mother asks little for her- 
self; the return for all her privations and toils is 
complete, when her children promote their own pres- 
ent and everlasting good. And there is nothing 
nobler on earth than this, — that parents, after years 
of care and watchfulness, after depriving themselves 
of ease by day and rest by night ; foregoing the social 
visit, the Sabbath service, and often the very com- 
forts of life for the sake of their children ; can forget 
the whole past, and become absorbed in the one single 
desire to witness, added to an outward prosperity, and, 
underlying it all, an honorable character in them. 
To see the great end and aim of their labors suc- 
cessful, a kind disposition, fidelity to home, society, 
country, and humanity, amid the bloom of their 
youth ; to see benevolence crowned by devotion, 
imparts a joy no language can portray. The parent, 
as he contemplates this cluster of virtues, feels a 
sweet sense of relief from the anxieties once caused 
by these objects of his love and prayer. He now 
looks forward with serenity ; for he sees a growing 

excellence and usefulness in those for whom and in 
3* 



30 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

whom he lives. Reflecting on the scene, his children 
coming forward, in succession, to merit and honor ; 
welcomed and trusted everywhere ; bearing success 
with humility, and reverses with a dignified pa- 
tience ; respected by all, and loved by those who 
share their friendship ; true to man and to God ; he 
can say, in many a moment, " Lord, now lettest thy 
servant depart in peace ; " for my eyes have seen the 
salvation of those dear to me as life. 

And now the scale of influence begins to turn. 
We seldom appreciate, as we ought, the growing 
power a son has over his parents. Through the first 
years of his life, his parents mould and form him ; 
but erelong he begins to sway them ; and so it con- 
tinues ; — the one must increase, but the other must 
decrease. With a silent, but resistless movement, the 
sceptre departs from the hand of the elder, until the 
parent is no longer the governor, but the governed. 
If it be the eldest son, his suggestions are more and 
more heeded ; he is the mentor of the household ; 
and so with each successive one, according to the dis- 
tinctness and force of their several characters. And 
the very youngest is an incipient king. The darling 
of the mother, his tender years touch her inmost 
love ; his weakness is his power, and his needs be- 
come his crown. 

There is one situation in which a young man is 



THE YOUNG MAN AT HOME. 31 

sometimes placed, that calls for peculiar offices, and 
affords an opportunity for a domestic virtue of un- 
equalled beauty. When the father of a family has 
been removed by death, new obligations are imposed 
on the sons. It is no ordinary praise, to discharge 
well the dues that belong to a widowed mother. 
And the world accords its approbation to those, who 
thus, in some good measure, repair one of the most 
desolating bereavements of Providence, — that of a 
mother left to educate, with unshared anxieties, a cir- 
cle of fatherless children. They are called, not only 
to train themselves up as their deceased parent would 
have trained them, but to fill his place, as far as pos- 
sible, toward her who survives. How much may 
they accomplish toward soothing her lonely spirit, by 
extending to her their arm in the trying exigencies 
of her lot, and striving to outvie one another in acts 
of delicate attention. 

There is no higher eulogium on the record of that 
eminent statesman, James Madison, than the one 
contained in the fact, that he was distinguished for a 
filial piety, whose amiable offices were prolonged to 
the last, to the ninety-seventh year of his venerable 
mother ; and were amply repaid by her repeated 
declaration, that " he had never given her cause for 
regret." 

The eldest of a band of orphan brothers stands in 



32 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

the very position, as it were, of him who is no more. 
What a high responsibility is resting upon him ! 
There is nothing more affecting, in the whole series 
.of our Saviour's benevolent miracles, than his raising 
from the dead a young man, who was the only son 
of his mother, and she a widow. A sorrow to an- 
guish had come upon her. The sole earthly stay of 
her heart had been stricken from her side. A youth- 
ful and devoted son, one to whose care she had com- 
mitted the sad remnant of her days, had been cut 
down in the morning of her hopes. What a thrill 
of joy must she have felt, how inconceivable to all 
except a parent, must have been her sensations when 
that son stood before her, a reanimated form ! I can 
ask nothing better for you, my young reader, than 
that, if God, in his wisdom, shall see fit to leave you 
to be the object of such widowed love, you may be 
found so distinguished for your early excellence, as 
to be leaned upon by that desolated heart with the 
fulness of a mother's trust. 

But, sad truth, this picture may have its reverse. 
There are parents doomed to the bitter fate of having 
a vicious son. There are homes where he, who 
should be a comfort and a stay, is an insupportable 
burden to his parents. When the great crisis of 
character arrived, they saw in him indications of a 
perverted moral taste and a love of corrupting society. 






THE YOUNG MAN AT HOME. 33 

They hoped for a reform ; but that hope is blasted. 
If it be " sharper than a serpent's sting to have a 
thankless son," what must it be to have one nurtured 
for a pure character, prove, after all our toil and 
sacrifices, a disgrace to himself and his family? 
" That young man," said a sea captain, as he pointed 
to a weather-beaten sailor climbing the shrouds, 
u was, a few years ago, a student in college. His 
father had immense wealth, and spared no pains to 
educate and gratify him. But, losing his property, 
the son, in his mortification, became reckless and dissi- 
pated ; and he has fallen to what you now see him. 
He appears to be actually beyond feeling." What 
an arrow, deadlier than all mere failures and pecu- 
niary want, did that son send into a mother's heart ! 
But there is a pang mure piercing even than this. 
It is to have a son remain at home, in the very place 
of his birth, a ruined youth, a by-word and a shame 
to his connections. What scenes are sometimes en- 
acted in our larger cities, when, in the depths of mid- 
night, the father must rise and open his door to his 
own child, returned, it may be, from some circle of 
revels and debauchery ; come reeling and maddened, 
perhaps, from one of those foul buildings, fitly termed 
by their occupants, " hells." Yes, if there be such a 
spot in the universe, it is found in a gambling house. 
As the frequenters of such scenes go thither, "hell 



34 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

from beneath " must " move " to meet them. No 
pure young man will suffer himself so much as to 
look upon their fascinations. His ingenuous spirit 
will echo and reecho the asseveration, " If I cared 
nothing for myself in this world or the next, the 
image of that father would haunt me at the gaming- 
table, and the eye of that broken-hearted mother 
would follow my tortured imagination, and melt me 
to the earth, should I enter those gates of death." 

Contemplate another of the domestic relations, the 
fraternal tie. There is something peculiarly sacred 
in the endearing appellation, brother. To the Chris- 
tian, it holds the essence of the second great com- 
mandment of his Master. When we look forward to 
the final triumph of our blessed religion, we depict 
all warring interests as hushed, and the whole race 
united in one sincere and world-wide brotherhood. 
Fraternal reminiscences go back to days lost in the 
oblivion of infancy. They carry us, not only to the 
one loved fireside, but to the village or city school- 
house, where we learned the same well-conned lesson ; 
to the play-ground, where we joined in our sun- 
bright sports ; to the companions and friends we met 
beneath our father's roof, or in some neighbor's dwell- . 
ing, but now scattered in remotest homes ; some, 
indeed, gone in their bloom to the innumerable com- 
pany on high. 



THE YOUNG MAN AT HOME. 35 

This relation affords scope for many delicate and 
disinterested offices. It gives one joy to find the 
good sister regarding with a generous pleasure the 
virtues of a brother. She does not, as is the manner 
of some, demand in him perfection ; knowing well 
that we may dwell on an ideal excellence, free from 
every spot and blemish, until we shall see only faults 
in our relatives, she is ready to forget and forgive all 
reasonable deficiencies, and to dwell on what is pure 
and praiseworthy. She sees many a fit opportunity 
to elevate her own character by overcoming evil with 
good ; subduing meanness by her own generosity ; 
educating her heart to a growing self-control; and, 
by the discipline of home, preparing herself to en- 
counter the stern trials of her whole earthly course. 

And is it not worth — I put it to the generous 
spirit of her sex — all, and more than all, it must 
cost to deal kindly in every emergency with a brother ; 
watching with pride and joy his expanding powers, 
tempting forth each noble quality, softening whatever 
in him is coarse by a bland influence ; and, if con- 
strained to rebuke him for his errors or chide his 
follies, doing it with a manifest good humor, and an 
adaptedness of time and circumstances, that makes 
him own its justice, and love her, not less, but the 
more, for her faithfulness ? Many a brother, in after 
life, when he was reaping the harvest of such kind- 



36 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

ness shown him in his boyhood and youth, has given 
thanks for a precious sister. Now, if never before, 
he acknowledges his indebtedness to that source, for 
improvements in mind and heart, in manners, habits, 
indeed in every thing that goes to build up character. 

And the opportunities of this relation are recipro- 
cal. The young man, whom G-od has blessed with 
the inestimable gift of such a sister, cannot easily 
meet the claims thus laid upon him. No spectacle is 
more delightful than to see a brother attentive to a 
sister's wants ; to mark that her society is pleasant to 
him ; that he never forgets her in the chase of the 
gay and frivolous of her sex : to observe that he 
seems never so happy as when, either in the retire- 
ment of home, or while abroad and surrounded by 
the attractive of her sex, he can bestow some little 
act of kindness upon her. 

Were I to advise a young man, with a single refer- 
ence to his worldly success, I should say, never be 
rude to a sister. Never imagine it is of little or no 
consequence how you treat her. If affection do not 
teach you otherwise, nature, the very relation itself, 
should. Besides, your reputation is at stake in this 
matter ; you cannot conceal your deportment from 
the world. The birds of the air sometimes reveal 
family secrets. If you are unfaithful in this duty at 
home, expect to hear of it in public ; and make up 



THE YOUNG MAN AT HOME. 37 

your mind, when you are a negligent and false 
brother, that you must sacrifice your good stand- 
ing in society. Be assured, on the other hand, that 
fidelity in this relation, will always be a passport in 
the world. Many a lady has accepted the attentions 
of a vouno- man, because she knew him to be a kind 
brother. And they did wisely ; for, if he, who can 
maltreat a sister, will lord it over a wife, the true 
brother will always prove a true and kind husband. 

The last topic, on which I can now speak, is the 
importance of home as a school for character. Where 
can one acquire the deeper and higher Christian qual- 
ities better than at home ? He who, next to his God, 
gives his strongest affections to his family circle ; who 
thinks his most imperative duties are there ; and who 
prizes the improvement and happiness of his kindred 
above every object elsewhere, must possess an estima- 
ble character. John Marshall, eminent as Chief Jus- 
tice of this nation, was thus eulogized by one who 
shared his bosom confidence : " After all," said Judge 
Story of him, " whatever may be his fame in the eyes 
of the world, that which, in a just sense, was his high- 
est glory, was the purity, affectionateness, liberality, 
and devotedness of his domestic life. Home, home 
was the scene of his real triumphs." And such were 
the triumphs of a greater than John Marshall. Who 
is not struck, in perusing the private correspondence 



38 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

of Washington, — pointing back, as it does, to the 
faithful offices of Mary, his mother, — by his un- 
quenchable attachment to his own quiet fireside ? 
From the field of war, covered with laurels, and from 
the harassing councils of a youthful government, he 
is ever turning his thoughts homeward ; and seems 
never so truly happy, as when he has reached the 
tranquil walks of his loved Mount Vernon. 

So may it be with those now entering into his la- 
bors. Let your own home be the cynosure of your 
affections, the spot Avhere your highest desires are 
concentrated. Do this, and you will prove, not only 
the hope, but the stay, of your kindred and home. 
Your personal character will elevate your whole fam- 
ily. Others may become degenerate sons, and bring 
the gray hairs of their parents with sorrow to the 
grave. But you will be the pride and staff of a 
mother, and an honor to your sire. You will estab- 
lish their house, give peace to their pillow, and be a 
memorial to their praise. 

The time will soon come, — if it has not already, — 
when you must part from those who have surrounded 
the same paternal board, who mingled with you in the 
gay-hearted joys of childhood, and the opening prom- 
ise of youth. New cares will attend you in new 
situations ; and the relations you form, or the business 
you pursue, may call you far from the "play-place" 



THE YOUNG MAN AT HOME. 39 

of your " early days." In the unseen future, your 
brothers and sisters may be sundered from you ; your 
lives may be spent apart ; and in death you may be 
divided ; and of you it may be said, — 

" They grew in beauty, side by side, 
They filled one home with glee ; 
Their graves are severed far and wide, 
By mount, and stream, and sea." 

But, whether it be so ; or weather Heaven shall per- 
mit you to pass away on the spot of your birth, where 
tender hearts and early loves shall minister to your 
departing hours ; if you have been a true son, a de- 
voted brother, and faithful and kind in every domestic 
relation, you will go down to the grave amid precious 
tears ; every token of your memory will be honored 
and loved ; and your multiplied virtues, — 'having 
bound you to all those nearest and dearest, as in 
bands of gold, — will be to them an earnest of a fu- 
ture reunion, an incentive to prepare to rejoin you in 
the house with " many mansions," and to share with 
you the consummation of a hope full of immortality. 



III. 

OUE YOUNG MEN THE HOPE OE THE LAND. 

THERE IS no interest touching the hopes and the 
prospects of this nation, in which so much is at 
stake, as in the moral condition of its young men. 
" If we conquer," — said Miltiades, as he marshalled 
his forces on the immortal Marathon, — " if we con- 
quer, we shall make Athens the greatest city of 
Greece." " If," — may the genius of our country say, 
with still stronger propriety, as each successive gen- 
eration advances to take charge of her institutions, 
— " if these young men conquer themselves, and, 
next to an allegiance to their God, truly love, and 
live for, the land of their birth, then shall this, 
through all ages, be the greatest nation on the globe." 
Alexander and Hannibal both culminated before 
their thirtieth year. Of the fifty-seven sovereigns 
of France, forty-eight have been under forty years 
of age when they came to the throne ; forty-two un- 
der thirty ; and thirty-five, nearly two-thirds of them, 

(40) 



YOUNG MEN THE HOPE OF THE LAND. 41 

under twenty. Edmund Burke was elected to the 
British Parliament at twenty-six. And the world 
was once startled to hear that the first place in the 
gift of the crown of Great Britain, had been bestowed 
on a man only twenty years of age. So does history 
admonish the patriot to bind himself and his influ- 
ence to our young men. They are the channels 
through which all that is good in the past must flow 
into the future. And not only by eminent men, like 
those just named, but as a mass, they hold in their 
hands the destiny of the nation. Each is an electric 
battery, charged with a force for good or for evil, that 
will rush through, and either vivify or destroy un- 
counted numbers. 

We may note, that, as a law, every virtuous and 
beneficent ruler or king, has been in his youth what 
he proved in his manhood. And the Neros and 
Caligulas and Ghengis Khans, tyrants in midlife, 
were cruel as the grave when young. The fall of 
Carthage was owing, not to mercenary troops, nor to 
the power of Rome alone, but to the abuses of men 
in office, and the fierceness of party spirit, and the 
sway of unprincipled demagogues ; and last, not least, 
to the corruption of the people themselves, and espec- 
ially the trampling down, morally speaking, of the 
flower of her youth. When her young men fell, the 
last pillar of her strength was struck down ; and the 

4* 



42 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

vow of the Caesars and the vote of the Roman sen- 
ates was fulfilled, " Carthage shall be destroyed." 

It is true of all countries, that their destiny is large- 
ly committed to the hands of those in the earlier 
periods of life. In every land the character of those 
at this age, both intellectually and morally, is of 
primal importance. But in no country is it of such 
vital concern as in ours ; and in no age has it been 
so important as in the present. For the tendency is 
more and more to bring our young men forward. 
Wherever wealth, power, and responsibility are de- 
manded and sought, there those who lead in each 
enterprise, are taken in early manhood. And this 
tendency has existed from the foundation of the Re- 
public. Eight of the men who signed the Declara- 
tion of Independence were under thirty-five years of 
age. Hamilton was a member of the Convention that 
framed our national Constitution, at thirty-one. La- 
fayette was but nineteen when he received a commis- 
sion of Major-general in the war of the Revolution ; 
and Washington was made Commander-in-chief of 
all the armed forces of Virginia when but twenty- 
three. To foster the production of such men as these, 
seems to me one of the noblest objects we can set be- 
fore ourselves. Our watchword should never be, 
" principles, not men," but it should be, " men with 
principles." No price is too high which can pro- 



YOUNG MEN THE HOPE OF THE LAND. 43 

cure for us a race early animated with true self-sacri- 
fice. 

As we are passing through the trying ordeal of the 
present anxious day of battle and bloodshed, we find 
our young men fired with a new devotion to the great 
cause of Liberty and Union. Ellsworth and Win- 
throp, early martyrs to their country's salvation ; 
Shaw, a son of affluence, yet sealing with his blood a 
solemn dedication to patriotism and humanity; and 
others, heroes in life's morning, were among the first 
fruits of the war. And, let what will betide us in this 
struggle, as regards its final results, we have already 
gained, and in a short period too, what years and de- 
cades of years of " piping peace," could never have 
accomplished, an unexampled sacrifice of personal 
ease and party spirit. And the worth of this change 
to our land, can hardly be exaggerated. For a long 
time the republic seemed on the swift wings of moral 
decay and ultimate dissolution, through the madness 
of party strifes and the spirit of a selfish aggrandize- 
ment, rife among those seeking, or already in, office 
and power. 

How alien has this temper been, as exhibited, both 
among electors and elected, to the principles of the 
gospel ! Why, what is the spirit of Christianity, as it 
bears on national relations and duties ? Jesus Christ 
was remarkable for the strength of his patriotism. 



44 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

"I am not sent," said he, "but to the lost sheep of 
Israel;" and, when he saw his mission to the Jews 
must for a time fail, it wrung from his heart a touch- 
ing lament. Paul, too, though raised up by God to 
be a minister to the Gentiles, yet gave the first place 
in his affections to his own people. " My heart's de- 
sire and prayer for Israel is that they may be saved ; " 
" I am ready to be accursed for my brethren's sake." 
We have seen too little of this temper in our coun- 
try. The idea that either of the great political par- 
ties, ordinarily existing among us, is utterly destitute 
of truth, honor, and honesty, because they differ from 
us on men and measures, is monstrous. The belief 
that our candidate is clad in angel robes the moment 
he is put in nomination, and that his opponent is a 
spirit of darkness, is preposterous. Such a violation 
of every law of Christian courtesy and decorum, to 
say nothing of heaven-born charity, may well awaken 
our alarm. But in no view is it more fearful than in 
its inevitable tendency to consume the very soul of 
patriotism. After vilifying our prominent men, de- 
tracting from their every honest and honorable quality; 
and when, for long months, we have searched the 
dictionary for epithets of personal abuse and scathing 
denunciations of a certain party ; — if they come into 
power, we are in danger of a predetermination, not 
only against the party itself, but in some instances 



YOUNG MEN THE HOPE OF THE LAND. 45 

against the country which has put such men into 
power. " What are all its institutions worth," some 
will begin to say within themselves, " if such or such 
men and principles prevail ? " 

While some are eager for office, others allow them- 
selves to become so disgusted with political affairs that 
they stubbornly decline every position of honor and 
trust. Even young men sometimes take this ground. 
But what is to become of the country if such practices 
prevail ? Will you give up all the offices to the selfish 
and corrupt ? Instead of doing this, you, who hold a 
high opinion of official purity and integrity, are the 
very person to fill these important stations, to accept 
what is offered you, and show the country what it is 
to be an honest, incorruptible politician. 

There are those who refuse to take any part in 
elections, because, as they say, the ballot-box is so 
perverted. Every body votes, and they are " dis- 
gusted with the whole subject of politics." A young 
man told me a few days ago, he had not voted for four 
years ; he was tired of our form of government ; and 
for his part, " wished we had a king." The slight 
proportion of our voters who appear regularly at the 
polls, year by year, shows an alarming indifference on 
this subject. The chief peril of the republic lies in 
this direction. So long as all the citizens, including, 
of course, all the best men, take a lively personal in- 



4G THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

terest in every election, the country is safe. For the 
right is inherently stronger than the wrong. But, let 
good men give up every thing to the bad, and what 
right have they to say our elections are inevitably 
corrupt, and they have lost their faith in republi- 
can institutions ? Not until they do their own part 
better, faithful, earnest, and hopeful, working with 
their whole souls for their country, may they take up 
this strain of perpetual fault-finding, gloom, and de- 
spair. 

Who cannot see that sentiments and practices of 
the character I describe tend to undermine the corner- 
stone of a sincere love of our country. If you ever 
hear men say, " I begin to doubt the soundness of our 
form of government ; and I almost sigh for a monarchy, 
or an oligarchy ; " then, through fear this or that 
odious party will succeed, or, as in the origin of the 
present rebellion, because it has succeeded, they are 
likely to turn traitors to their country. Or, if this 
height of disloyalty is not reached, they still, by the 
manner in which they expose the shame of their own 
parent, magnify the sins of this or that party, or set 
of officials, and by their whole influence, direct or in- 
direct, impair, if they do not destroy, in the people 
every vestige of true patriotism. 

It needs not that we forget or connive at all the 
errors and sins of our country ; but, before we utter 



YOUNG MEN THE HOPE OF THE LAND. 47 

the hot breath of malignity against the country itself ; 
or despair of, or become indifferent to, her future, we 
should look well at the case. Why, then, ought we 
to love our country ? First, simply because it is our 
country — the land where God gave us our birth. It 
holds the ashes of our fathers ; it bore up our cradle ; 
it has nourished us on its bosom ; it is the home of our 
kindred, hallowed by a father's care, and a mother's 
toils, tears, and prayers. 

One may pride himself on his humanity, who, for 
some reason, is wholly unpatriotic ; but humanity and 
patriotism are essentially one. I have no confidence 
in his philanthropy, who can turn away from his natal 
soil, and either pine for other realms, or oppose all 
civil government whatever. He who does not love 
his own country, cannot truly love his race. We can 
appreciate aright the sentiments of human brotherhood 
only by first entering into our own national bonds. 
The land of our nativity is but a larger home. Chris- 
tian benevolence, instead of warring; against, is indeed 
in perfect harmony with, and nurtured by, a broad, 
deep, and steadfast love of our country. 

We ought to cherish a patriotic regard for this 
land, because the God of nature has done so much for 
it. Look at its extent, its diversified and glorious 
scenery, its mighty rivers, . bearing steam-craft from 
the sea to the inland village, and driving its myriads 



48 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

of wheels. See its forests, yielding timber for ten 
thousand buildings, and for ships that cross and coast 
all waters ; its plains, its prairies, yielding grain and 
fruits for the millions ; its streams and mountains, 
rich with inexhaustible ores ; its facilities for the 
mechanic and manufacturing arts, its capacity to feed 
and clothe our own and foreign races. Traverse its 
vast regions from lake to gulf, and from the Atlantic 
to the wide and all-girdling Pacific ; and I do say, if 
you have in your bosom one spark of thankfulness to 
God, or even any manly and honorable appreciation, 
and just acknowledgment, of the national grandeur 
and the available value of this opulent domain, you 
cannot but love its very soil. The dweller on the 
rugged Alps clings to his home amid the eternal snows 
and the beetling avalanche ; and the 

" Loud torrent, and the whirlwind's roar, 
But bind him to his native mountains more." 

How, then, shall we stand acquitted, if our affec- 
tions do not cleave to these fertile fields and these 
genial skies? 

But, our youth should love this land for the deeds 
done here in the past. On this soil was promulgated 
the first effective Declaration of National Independ- 
ence, emancipation from civil and religious tyranny, 
and establishment of the great doctrines of human 



YOUNG MEN THE HOPE OF THE LAND. 49 

rights and of equality before God and all true men. 
This is the spot consecrated by the counsels, the toils, 
and the martyr blood of our fathers ; and a traitor of 
deepest dye must he be who can trample upon and 
insult her " dear old flag." Liberty has here opened 
wide a door for the oppressed of all distant lands ; 
and, however unfaithful the sons may, in some re- 
spects, have shown themselves, the sires did and 
suffered nobly to lay here the foundations of a God- 
ordained government, and to train up successive gen- 
erations of free, intelligent, virtuous, and prospered 
people. 

Our young men ought to give their hearts to their 
country in view of the rights and privileges, civil and 
religious, it affords them. Would that I could take 
them each and all into foreign lands, and see, as I 
have seen, the sad contrast with our blessed institu- 
tions. Why is Italy, so glorious in her sunny atmos- 
phere and fertile fields, a fallen nation? Because 
she is accursed by papal and other despotisms. 
"Take care what you say," said our courier to my- 
self and companions, as we sat around our poor meal 
in an Italian hotel ; " take care," he whispered, 
u there is a government spy." One feels, as he moves 
there, no freedom to speak, scarcely to think, of 
republican liberties, lest some menial of Rome or 
Austria seize him and cast him into prison. Thank 



50 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

God, the poorest and weakest among us, — unless he 
arrays himself in rebellion against the government, — 
stands under the broad shield of the all-equalizing 
and protecting law. The land we till is our own, 1 not 
absorbed by a grasping aristocracy, nor liable to be 
wrested from us by government officials. Our homes 
are our own ; not taxed, as is done even in boasting 
England, till the very air one breathes, and the light 
that shines upon him, the gifts of generous Heaven, 
are cut off by a rapacious administration. 

Our young men have been in danger, either 
through ignorance of their privileges, or the over- 
mastering power of other sentiments and interests, 
of losing sight of the claims of their country upon 
their deep and steady affection, and of the vital influ- 
ence of this sentiment. If we have a true love for 
her, it will usually indicate to us our duty, and in- 
spire us to its performance. I know of no image 
so just as that which calls her our mother. What 
if she has faults ? Why blaze them abroad, or take 
pleasure in pondering upon them ? " It matters not," 
said Charles Lamb, " to tell me how many mothers 
there are in the world better than mine ; she is my 
mother; that suffices for me." Our country is our 
mother ; and, if she has errors, we ought gently and 
kindly to admonish her, not cry out against her at 
the corners of the streets. We ought, with filial 



YOUNG MEN THE HOPE OF THE LAND. 51 

fidelity, to cling to her in honor or dishonor, in peace 
or war ; and bless and sustain her. Not " our coun- 
try, right or wrong," but our country still, to be 
delivered from her sins, — to be loved on, loved ever. 

" As body joins in one with soul, no bound 
Between thee and my yearning breast be found. 
So let the precious early influence last 
Till memory's self be something in the past." 

We need this spirit, the spirit of Jesus Christ, to 
make our young men, politically, all we could desire. 
It would purify every aspirant for office and honor, 
making him scorn bribery and every mean artifice, 
and clothe himself, as was required of the Roman 
candidate, in white. He would seek elevation only 
to do greater good to his country ; or rather, he 
would not seek it at all ; he would be sought, urged 
on by others, and borne into office by a genuine 
acclamation. Our people have only to divest them- 
selves of low and selfish purposes, and merge their 
whole heart in their country, to see the nobleness of 
their function, and carry into it a personal and pri- 
vate virtue. Let them feel that a just and pure 
government approaches the rule of the Divinity him- 
self ; that they are intrusted with the security, com- 
fort, and uprightness of millions ; that from them, as a 
head-spring, must flow streams, not only of national, 



52 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

but moral, good or evil, rolling over the valleys and 
plains of tins vast region ; that freedom and justice 
bend their waiting eyes upon them ; and they cannot 
but spurn the doctrine that there is no such thing as 
official integrity ; that the spoils must be to the vic- 
tor ; that place and power are of course to be put up 
for a vulgar, miserable scramble ; and that he, who 
would scorn the very thought of taking a dollar from 
the desk of his employer, no sooner holds a public, 
financial office, than he may embezzle as he pleases. 
And they would deprecate the thought, that there, at 
the very central point of national and governmental 
sway, only the child, or the man of the closet, will 
look for the sanctity of individual integrity, the love 
of man and the fear of God. 

Why, look at the consequences which must follow 
the deliberate divorcement of all moral restraints from 
public life. Parties would then demand in their rep- 
resentatives, not honesty, but servitude ; corruption 
and bribery would become of daily occurrence ; each 
new administration would be more vicious than the 
past ; our young men would become, not, according 
to the law of God and human progress, wiser and 
better, but more degraded in their governmental rela- 
tions, than their fathers. Not to be honest and capa- 
ble, but to be a party zealot, would be the passport to 
promotion and office. Our national dignity and self- 



YOUNG MEN THE HOPE OF THE LAND. 53 

respect, our freedom and patriotism, would then be 
sunk in a selfish grasp for power ; and, the national 
conscience extinct, honor would be gone ; and God 
in his wrath might send us at last some Nebuchad- 
nezzar, before whose golden image we should bow, 
and lick the dust from its feet. 

What can avert this awful doom ? I believe, under 
God, but one thing ; and that is, that we feel solemnly 
bound to carry the very same sense of obligation 
into our public relations as we do into our private 
ones. Undoubtedly, there is much to lament in the 
latter sphere. Still, let a person only determine ber 
fore God and conscience, to do nothing as a citizen or 
politician, which he would not do as a man, and we 
have a mighty safeguard to the republic. And why 
should this not be ? I see no reason, — except that 
poorest of all reasons, custom, — why he who holds a 
governmental office, should not be marked as a model 
of integrity, honest to the letter, scrupulous in the 
smallest transaction. 

Let the young man beware of those who, by word 
or example, would teach him to draw. a line between 
the politician and the man: Think of the monstrous 
doctrine that " all is fair in politics ; " that one must be 
of course a good brother, husband, and father, a kind 
neighbor, and a good citizen in general; but the 
moment he steps into his governmental relations, he 

5* 



54 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

may with impunity cast the truth to the winds, and 
intrigue, deceive, disregard the interests of his coun- 
try, and care and labor for himself and his party 
alone ! Think of the principle that he, who may not 
break a single law of God at home, may yet, for the 
sake of elevation and power, set aside every call of 
Christ and his gospel ! 

Nor does the fact that one's opponents adopt such 
courses at all justify this wearing two characters. 
You may say, u My neighbor does this, and to suc- 
ceed, I must do the same ; " as a man, he is truthful, 
honest, and upright ; as a politician, he is deceitful, 
unscrupulous, and corrupt ; as a man, he abstains 
carefully from slander ; as a politician, he indulges 
unlimitedly in it, rejoices to see it used on his side, 
and glories in its success. As a friend, he advises 
the young with wisdom and kindness ; as a politician, 
he counsels them to stop at nothing which will carry 
their point, elect their candidate, or defeat his oppo- 
nent. He prays, perhaps, for the progress of religion, 
justice, and love ; by his voice and his whole personal 
influence in public, he sustains principles at enmity 
with every part and particle of the Christian char- 
acter. 

I know it is said by not a few that we only " dream 
dreams " when we think of harmonizing Christianity 
and politics. A weak man, it is thought, is he, who 



YOUNG MEN THE HOPE OF THE LAND. 55 

imagines any words of his can do the least toward 
making any one vote according to the dictates of re- 
ligion ; or induce any public man to administer the 
government, or fill any office, civil or military, on 
such a visionary plan. But, is it indeed so ? Did I 
dream when I read of one who accepted the com- 
mandership of our armies in the Revolutionary strug- 
gle, with diffidence ; and who would receive no com- 
pensation for his services ; and would have cut off his 
right hand sooner than suffer it to minister to his own 
interests at the cost of his bleeding country ? Was it 
in a dream that I saw the image of a man who, in- 
stead of seeking the office of the presidency, and 
prostituting honor and principle to gain it, modestly 
declined the position ; and who declined a reelection, 
and consented to it only after long and earnest entreat- 
ies ? Did that man advocate the doctrine, that " relig- 
ion is religion, and politics are politics ? " Did he ever 
intimate that when we go to the ballot-box, we may 
put down principle, and exalt custom and popularity, 
and worship expediency ? Woe to the country whose 
young men adopt the doctrine that corruption, every- 
where else wrong, in politics is right. If the sacrifice 
of integrity is a necessary element of our institutions ; 
and if we, of all parties, are forced to the conclusion 
that, much as we may regret it, we cannot prevent 
it, then the days of this republic are numbered. 



56 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

But no ; take your stand on the Bible, and you will 
be ashamed to say there is any sphere of life whatever 
it is too weak to control. You cannot then renounce 
all faith in the power of religion over men's public 
relations and duties. You will not, with the voice of 
prophets and apostles sounding in your ear, with the 
Son of God forbidding you to break one jot or tittle 
of his command, rush into this foul atmosphere and 
consent to breathe it on and on forever. But if any 
regard the mention of religion as inappropriate in this 
connection, no one, no right-minded young man, T 
am sure, will pass by as an idle tale the examples of 
our fathers. Look for a moment at the lofty, self- 
devoted spirit of the founders of American Indepen- 
dence. "Tell. the King of England," said one of 
them, when tempted, to betray his country for gold, 
" that I am not worth buying, but that, such as I am, 
he is not rich enough to buy me." Such were the 
hearts that beat in many a breast through those trying 
days. If they " scorned to be' slaves," they scorned 
still more to make gain at the public expense. They 
entered upon office, not from mean motives, not from 
cupidity or an unhallowed ambition, but with a sin- 
cere, and noble, desire to serve their country. Filled 
and animated by this godlike disinterestedness, they 
first gave her their prayers, and then laid on her altar 
their time, their substance, their toils, and their coun- 



• 



YOUNG MEN THE HOPE OF THE LAND. 57 

sels ; and, when, called to it by stern duty, for her 
sake they poured out their blood like water. 

We are prone to forget that the very same spirit 
which established our government, is essential to its 
maintenance. Not in the day of rebellion alone, but 
in every age that passes, the whole basis of our civil 
rights, not to say our religious freedom, rests on the 
personal character we individually possess. There is 
•o charm in free institutions to sustain themselves, 
still less to build up and bless a Christian nation. 
"We need a political education equal to that given 
for general purposes to our children and youth. 
They are taught in our public schools such branches 
as prepare them for a laudable and successful occupa- 
tion. The Sunday school gives them religious in- 
struction ; and the law of the land trains them in the 
great school of public justice. But what is the po- 
litical seminary into which they now pass ? Too 
often it is one which undoes their whole previous ed- 
ucation. There they are taught, by example if not 
precept, lessons of selfishness, rivalry, and alienation. 
They are stimulated, by a venal press and by unscru- 
pulous demagogues, to an idolatry of office and power. 
The atmosphere which they everywhere breathe is 
tainted by false principles and unholy practices ; and 
their early intellectual and moral education, in^ead 
of being carried on to perfection, is often completely 



58 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

neutralized ; and they think and act, at last, not for 
themselves and independently, but in, with, and for 
their party connections alone. 

But liberty, where the individual is a slave to his 
neighbor's opinions and practices, is a mere sound. 
To whom is the sovereign power of this nation now 
confided ? " To the people," you answer ; and who 
are the people ? Every legally qualified individual. 
The despotic and monarchical governments of the old 
world educate the heir to the throne, and spare no 
treasure to prepare him for his responsible position. 
Every freeman in our land is a sovereign. Every 
one, therefore, rich or poor, high or low, needs the 
same independence of mind, the same personal vir- 
tues, the same sense of responsibility as he would if 
clothed in purple and wearing a crown. But how 
few realize and feel this truth ? The young man, 
especially, may say, " My case is an exception ; my 
influence is trifling ; I expect and desire no office ; I 
cast only one vote ; and it can certainly be of no con- 
sequence to my country that I should be and do all 
you describe." Your neighbor thinks precisely so of 
his case ; a third, a fourth, an hundredth think so of 
theirs, and with equal propriety. And now what be- 
comes of the sovereign people ? 

A. case once occurred in which the President of the 
United States was elected by the vote of a single man. 



YOUNG MEN THE HOPE OF THE LAND. 59 

Was it of no consequence who, or what that man 
was ? Might he set aside principle, bow to party, 
peril his country, and defy his God, and conclude by 
saving he was but one man ? No individual living 
under the broad shield of this mighty republic can tell 
how soon a responsibility may be placed in his par- 
ticular hands, calling for the highest capacity, the 
firmest integrity, and the purest patriotism. 

The spirit I would inculcate has been recently 
aroused as never before. In the solemn crisis of the 
war now forced upon us, I look with special interest 
on the part to be enacted in it by our young men. 
Not forgetting for a moment those in middle life, our 
able statesmen at the capitol, at whose head sits as 
chief and sponsor for all, the individual whom God 
seems to have placed in that chair, uniting, by his 
great Providence, the man and the hour ; and not 
forgetting our distinguished military leaders in the 
meridian of their years, I still think the fortunes of 
this conflict rest largely, for their successful and tri- 
umphant execution, in the hands of our young men. 
Under all circumstances they give tone alike to the 
state, the church, and the world. It is those in the 
morning of life, to whom the Bible constantly ad- 
verts, as its great armor-bearers in the conflicts of the 
church militant. Patriarch, prophet, and psalmist 
exalt their work in the cause of religion. It was a 



60 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

young man whom our Saviour chose for his beloved 
apostle. In our civil relations, we need the old for 
counsel, and the middle-aged for wisdom ; and to bear 
on the great ark of secular enterprise and national 
advancement, we have ever looked, and must still 
look, to our young men. 

In the time of peace we depend at every turn upon 
this class to sustain our institutions, literary, social, 
and economical ; and when the dread summons to war 
is heard, we turn at once for the highest demonstra- 
tions of devotion, self-sacrifice, courage, and patriotism 
to our young men. I have heard, and from more 
than one, expressions of doubt and hesitancy in re- 
gard to the sanctions of duty and religion in the 
prosecution of the present war. Ministers of the 
gospel, in some cases, have thought and said, it was 
contrary to the commands and spirit of Christ. But, 
in nearly every such instance, the remonstrance came 
from those past the bloom of their years. From 
many a young man I have heard words like these : 
I thank God that my course on this question is 
clear. I think it is a conflict for the very life of our 
government and its precious institutions. I believe 
that, not only policy, property, government, and hu- 
manity, but Christianity itself demands of us now to 
join heart and hand to maintain the very existence 
of every thing dearest and most sacred to us on earth. 



YOUNG MEN THE HOPE OF THE LAND. 61 

On the fate of this struggle hangs the destiny of the 
republic, the hope of civil liberty, yes, and of relig- 
ious liberty, the hope of freedom to every child of 
God, and the rights of the race here, and the world 
over. Away, then, with all questions as to who 
brought on this contest, or who is to gain most or 
lose most by it in the end ; and let every true man 
enroll himself in the sacramental host, while we say, 
" In the name of God we set up our banners." 

The city in which the writer resides, illustrates the 
truth in question. We can never forget that morn- 
ing, at the very outbreak of the rebellion, when, amid 
the gloom of a dismal rain- storm, seventeen men left 
us for the primal scene of this great strife. Whose 
heart was not touched as he saw that devoted band 
start ? It was an affecting spectacle, that of hun- 
dreds gathered to witness their departure- The gray- 
liaired were there, bidding them a hearty God speed ; 
man in his full vigor looked on, and seemed nobly to 
affirm, " I, too, am ready, if the country calls, to fol- 
low your steps ; " childhood was there, gazing in fond 
wonder, in tears, it may be, at a departing father ; 
woman was there, she whose warm heart was first to 
pray, and whose diligent hand has been always ready, 
and will be to the last, to toil for the soldier ; a wife, 
perhaps, in agony for the friend of her bosom, whose 
face, it may be, she shall see no more ; a sister, weep- 



62 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

ing, as she hung on the neck of a fond brother ; a 
new bride was there, or one but as yet affianced ; ah, 
war is cruel as the grave in the desolations it brings 
to hearts and homes. 

And now for whom did we assemble ? A band of 
young men, one but eighteen, fifteen less than thirty, 
and but a single one above forty. A sample this of 
those who, in the sharp arbitrament of the sword, are 
usually preponderant in numbers. So passed on, and 
have since been passing, the flower of our youth, from 
the peaceful walks of the mechanic, the laborer, the 
clerk, the tradesman, or the student; to peril their 
lives in a cause as sacred as that for which our fathers 
once offered themselves, giving their treasure and 
their blood to establish this republic. And this was 
then the silent petition of our hearts : May the God 
of armies go with them. - May he protect them, and. 
all their associates on the field of battle, if they are 
called by its summons ; may he shield them in their 
exposures to sickness, in the camp, and in those great- 
est of changes, the trials of virtue, of temperance, and 
of purity, which so cluster round the fortunes of the 
soldier. The God of all grace provide for, and pro- 
tect those they leave behind at their firesides ; and go 
forth with these, and permit them, having done their 
part toward the victory of order, liberty, and law, — 
sure to come earlier or later from this conflict, — to 



YOUNG MEN THE HOPE OF THE LAND. G3 

return in safety, and enjoy the fruits of their noble 
services ; or, if they fall, to know that they fell in 
honor, and that it is sweet and becoming, aye, and 
Christian too, in a cause so justifiable before man and 
before God, to die for one's country. 

But when this war is over, and union and peace 
are again restored, we are not to imagine we have 
only to lie down and repose beneath the tree planted, 
amid perils and sufferings, by our fathers, and watered 
in the day of rebellion by the blood of their sons. 
Harder battles than those of the sword, may be still 
before us. We are to contend against the root of all 
wars, the ambition of the selfish and intriguing. 
And, when slavery is "at last, as it will be, abolished, 
we must still encounter the pride and indolence which 
underlie that all-blighting institution ; we must breast 
the frenzy of popular passions, the rage of the multi- 
tude, ignorant, prejudiced, inflamed, and infuriated 
by irresponsible guides, until they trample on law, 
order, property, and life. We are to contend against 
all those narrow views and impure motives, that raise 
a wall between ourselves and the welfare of the com- 
munity around us. In that greatest of strifes God 
grant us the victory. May our young men then 
show, not only that it is honorable to die for one's 
country, but that a still higher meed awaits him who 



64 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

lives for it, virtuously, consistently, with a calm self- 
oblivion and a quenchless devotion. 

Two great classes stand before our young men at 
this crisis, and will at many others ; those who act 
out of their own being, having faith in principle, and 
resolved to obey its behests ; and those who float idly 
on the current of the times, made in their character, 
public, if not private, just what the hand of the bold 
and the leading may choose ; those who have a mind 
and a will of their own, and those who have neither. 
Which will our youth join ? Inheritors of all that is 
noble in the past, sitting under the vine planted by 
their fathers, may they prove worthy of their lineage. 
The future, with all the fearful issues of our undis- 
closed history, awaits their movement. 

In visiting, some years since, the noble structure at 
the capital of Vermont, I was struck with a picture 
in its entrance, representing Christ teaching the doc- 
tors in the temple. A most fitting scene for the place 
and position. I imagine that divinely-born being, as 
yet but twelve years of age, giving lessons to each 
representative, as he entered those doors. Jesus 
Christ stands at the portals of this mighty nation ; 
and he says to every young man, as he approaches 
the altar of public duty, first of all things, " take my 
yoke upon you and learn of me." In the wilderness, 






YOUNG MEN THE HOPE OE THE LAND. 65 

the tempter assayed, by hunger and want, to make 
me false to my country, to man, and to my God. I 
met him with the declaration that man was not to 
kw live by bread. alone," but by keeping the words of 
the Lord. He tempted me again, instead of serving 
(rod and man in humility, to make myself a spectacle 
to admiring thousands. I refused to prostrate my 
sacred gifts, and to tempt the Lord by the abuse of 
my God-imparted powers. He took the form of am- 
bition ; office, dominion, and glory were then set 
before me ; 4 get thee hence, Satan,' was my indignant 
reply ; ' thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and 
Him only shalt thou serve.' So may you, now, as I 
then was, in the morning of your earthly course, 
^eterminately say. 

Into your hands, young man, God is now com- 
mitting one of the mightiest of all human trusts, the 
care of institutions such as the sun never before shone 
upon. Be but faithful to your task, take up your 
cross, and you will" slum that selfishness, that avarice, 
and that unhallowed ambition, which have desolated 
each governmental fabric once the hope of the past. 
. You will cherish a sincere love of this your God- 
blessed country; you will espouse its best interests 
with a zeal as pure as it is fervent ; and you will 
cling to them with an unconquerable steadfastness. 

. 6 * • - 



66 THE BLADE AXD THE EAR. 

And then this precious heritage shall pass through 
your hands, sustained in its pristine integrity ; and it 
shall send a life-giving savor down through all suc- 
eeeding generations : and abroad, to the extension, 
on other shores, of a universal, Christ-bought, and 
Heaven-approved freedom. 



IV. 

BASIS OF SUCCESS. 

IN LOOKING over the directions given by men 
who have succeeded in amassing property, we find 
them many and various. A merchant of Boston, 
who died possessed of some four millions, says of the 
aspirant for fortune, — " Let him mind his own busi- 
ness." Another, in New York, advises, — " Let him 
be beforehand with his business." One who accumu- 
lated a large estate in Philadelphia, a man, too, of 
unchallenged integrity, gives us a volume of " Max- 
ims of Trade," prominent among which are these, — 
" 1st. Cultivate a habit of self-reliance ; keep the 
helm firmly in your own hand, and trust no other to 
steer the ship. 2d. Be punctual ; always keep 
every thing ready for action. As the chain is never 
stronger than its weakest link, so is the bond among 
merchants ; one member who fails to meet his obliga- 
tions, involves all connected with him. 3d. Attend 
faithfully to little things. They make the best officers 
who serve first in the ranks. 4th. Think closely, and 

(67) 



68 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

in every way strengthen your mental powers. 5th. 
Gain all information that bears on your business. 
6th. Be generous, just, true, and grateful to your 
benefactors." Another, who stood in the first rank 
of his avocation in New York, the only one out of 
twenty-five who were companions in his first mer- 
cantile experience, that did not finally fail, combined 
in his character a caution, good judgment, energy, and 
enterprise, by which he rose, step by step, through 
the grades of boy, clerk, merchant, and banker. His 
motto was, " Acquire rightly, and use rightly." He 
began early to give ; and stood always in the noble 
ranks of the Grinnells and the Lawrences, — men 
who, while they enriched themselves, poured out 
freely of their wealth, blest their country, and earned 
a clear title to the name of the successful merchant. 
Still another, an honor to his name and avocation, 
avers, that " the true path to success lies in an unde- 
viating adherence to the purest and. noblest principles 
of action." 

This last is the foundation I would lay in the pres- 
ent chapter. I believe. that, in the long run, it is the 
upright alone who prosper. We have in the Bible a 
perpetual bond between moral excellence and worldly 
success. Although the Canaanites dwell for a time 
in a. good land, flowing with milk and honey, yet, be- 
cause they worship not the true God, but sacrifice to 



BASIS OF SUCCESS. 69 

strange and unholy deities, the Israelites, men who 
do what is right before the Lord, take possession of 
well-stored houses, which they builded not, and retain 
their wealth, ordinarily, so long as they offer to that 
High and Holy Being the first-fruits of their land 
and labor. That same Abraham, who was " father 
of the faithful," and a pattern of righteousness, was 
" rich in flocks and herds and all possessions." And 
Job, who was perfect and upright before God and 
man, is said to have been, in point of wealth, " the 
greatest of all the men of the East." 

Nay, the Bible represents the Christian virtues as 
not only consistent with, but the very basis of a true 
worldly prosperity. " The Lord God is a sun and a 
shield ; no good thing will be withheld from them 
that walk uprightly." " Godliness," says the great 
apostle, " is profitable for all things, having the prom- 
isee of the life that now is, and of that which is to 
come." In other words, Christian integrity and up- 
rightness, honor and honesty, are the only sure guides 
to a substantial and permanent success, present and 
future. 

The bent of the American mind, from early child- 
hood, is, in one form or another, to trade, commerce, 
and the varied pursuits of business. Without losing 
sight, therefore, of the other multiplied occupations, 
whether mental or manual, I shall address myself in 



70 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

this chapter mainly to that portion of our youth who 
contemplate what is known as a business life. 

To produce a character prophetic of worldly suc- 
cess, heed must be given to its elemental principle. 
And that is strict, thorough honesty. If you become 
a mechanic's apprentice, let it be your first and last 
determination to be faithful and true. When Frank- 
lin had been bound by indenture to his brother, they 
had occasion, for certain public reasons, to rescind the 
contract. But, to secure his services to his brother, 
Franklin drew up voluntarily a new contract, to be 
kept secret to themselves, and yet to bind him as an 
apprentice. A difference afterwards sprang up be- 
tween them, and Franklin took advantage of his pub- 
lic release from his brother, and violated his secret 
engagement ; " a dishonorable transaction," he says 
of it himselfj " and one of the first errors of my life." 

Let the young man be warned by this example ; 
let him shun as a viper the thousand little ways m 
which he can take advantage of his employer, slight- 
ing his work, leaving it unfinished where it cannot be 
detected ; or, perhaps, deserting his bench or shop 
when his employer is out of sight. If a youth be 
once possessed with the great Christian sentiment, 
" No man liveth unto himself alone," he will never 
be guilty of such practices. He will serve his em- 
ployer, not only as in the sight of man, but of Him 



BASIS OF SUCCESS. 71 

who searcheth the heart. He will strive to do good, 
and not evil, to him and every one else. 

Take another sphere, that of trade. When a boy 
enters a store, he begins a work whose moral issues 
thought cannot span. In the first place, he is to learn 
there the great art of accumulation ; he is to enter on 
the ascending grade of a business life. To make sure 
of gain and competency, he must set out right. " Be 
not slothful in business," says the Bible. Industry, 
the demand of God, is also the germ of all permanent 
success in this world ; and therefore, for his own sake, 
a youth will put his hand resolutely and steadily to 
the stern tasks of a diligent labor. 

For his employer's sake, he will cherish an im- 
maculate honesty. I do not refer here to shunning 
the gross crime of taking money or goods by stealth. 
That is not the chief temptation in his way. I advert 
to the thousand little acts of dishonesty, which are 
the leading-strings to all the larger ones. The im- 
pression sometimes prevails, that none but a very 
skilful eye can detect these things. It is not so ; the 
employer, though he should not discover each specific 
act of dishonesty, does, sooner or later, perceive the 
general spirit of unfaithfulness in one who se#ves him 
with no conscience and no heart. Equally, and as 
surely, does he observe every token of fidelity and 
honesty. Be always early at your post, and late to 



72 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

leave it; save in little things for your employer, just 
as you would for yourself; make his interest your 
interest. In this way, vou soon gain his confidence. 
Step by step, you become indispensable to him ; he 
increases your compensation, makes you an occasional 
present, promotes you over others, the idle and the 
unfaithful ; and eventually, perhaps, makes you his 
partner. 

And that is not all ; you form, in this way, the 
very best business habits ; and whenever and wher- 
ever you come to act for yourself, you are sure of 
success. Fidelity in small things, that is the right 
arm of all true power and progress ; it is the corner- 
stone of prosperity, as in character, so in business. 

One is amazed, as he looks into this subject, and 
views the world at large, to see so little confidence in, 
and determination toward, strict honesty. Our great 
English poet affirms, — 

"To be honest, as this world goes, 
Is to be one picked out of ten thousand." 

Be this as it niay, true or false, the marvel is that 
so many do not, and dare not, try the experiment. 
Who e\»er saw it, on the whole and in the end, fail ? 
A young man was dismissed from his place because 
he would not become party to a falsehood, by which 
course he lost the firm some hundreds of dollars. A 



BASIS OF SUCCESS. 73 

few days afterward, hearing of a situation, he applied 
for it. The merchant asked for some reference. 
Firm in his integrity, and with conscious innocence, he 
replied, " I have just been dismissed from Mr. — 's ; 
you may inquire of him. He has tried me, and 
known me well." His former employer gave him a 
free and full recommendation, adding, however, 
" There is one difficulty with him ; he is too con- 
scientious about little matters." But did the young 
man suffer on that account ? No, he won the great- 
est confidence by it ; he soon became partner in a 
large firm in Boston, and met with high prosperity. 
Young man, try this course for yourself. 

If a lad will only begin, resolved to do this, and 
cling to his resolution, as boy, clerk, salesman, and 
principal, he must in the end succeed. Let him say 
distinctly, " Others may represent goods as having 
cost what they know they did not cost ; they may set 
them forth as durable or fashionable, when it is all 
false ; they may take advantage of the ignorance of 
their customers, and determine at all hazards to make 
a good bargain; /will never do these things;" let 
him say this, and act up to it, and he will soon gain 
the name of an honest man ; and eventuallv his store 
will be thronged. 

Here, as everywhere, true expediency and principle 
go together. " He must be simple-minded enough," 



74 THE BLADE AND THE EAR 

said a trader to me, " who expects to retain his cus- 
tomers, after he has once let them see he is not an 
honest man." That individual was honest to the 
letter ; he was shrewd in business, and acquired a 
large property ; hut I never heard him charged with 
fraud, even to a penny. He was a member of my 
church ; and, I believe, lived out his profession 
toward both God and man. 

Is he wise, who takes the opposite course ? Sup- 
pose one start in life with the popular motto : " Let 
every one look out for himself." His purpose is to 
defraud others whenever it is for his interest, and 
he can do it without detection. "It is naught," he 
says, when he is the buyer ; but as the seller, he 
" boasteth " of the same thing. He does not hesitate 
to embezzle on a small scale, and convert fraudulently 
to his own use, in small degrees, the goods of another ; 
he will sometimes obtain property by false pretences 
or tokens ; and secure the signatures of other persons 
by misstatements ; he ends, perhaps, as a forger him- 
self. Let conscience be dead, and one will use " false 
weights," an "abomination," not only "in the sight 
of the Lord," but of every good man. He will alter 
the gauge on his goods, and mark this or that article 
with false letters and stamps; he will adulterate every 
thing he can, without being exposed. What deeds 
are sometimes done in this spirit and by these prac- 



BASIS OF SUCCESS. 75 

tices ! Not only do articles of food and apparel bear 
a false guise ; but more especially, intoxicating liquors 
are drugged by the most destructive poisons. Vitriol, 
henbane, sugar of lead, prussic acid, some fifty ingre- 
dients indeed, it is said, are mixed with the wines, 
beers, and brandies of the day. He who indulges his 
appetite with such drinks, should know what deadly 
compounds he is taking. And they, who, for the 
sake of filthy lucre, knowingly manufacture and deal 
forth these instruments of death, should be indicted 
as criminals. 

In unnumbered ways, our youth are now decoyed 
into dishonest courses. One is enticed, perhaps, by 
the love of pleasure, to take from his employer the 
means of self-indulgence. If an error be made by a 
customer in favor of the store, he may, instead of 
rectifying the mistake, put the profit of it into his own 
pocket. A young man once told me that, on his pre- 
senting a check at the bank for his employer, the 
teller overpaid him a hundred dollars. He, of course, 
made haste to correct the error and return the sur- 
plus to the bank. He might have kept that sum ; 
had he been addicted to the pleasures of vice he 
would have done it ; and perhaps no mortal, except 
the bank officer, would have known it. Yes, one 
would have known it, and carried about, and lain 
down on his pillow with, that dread secret in his 



76 THE BLADE AND THE EAR, 

bosom; and at midnight, a still small voice would 
have again and again whispered, " Thou, God, seest 
me." 

I have depicted the course of an honest boy ; and 
shown how Christian principle prepared the way for 
his promotion and success. He is now, let us sup- 
pose, embarking in business for himself; and the first 
thing we observe is, that he has truly set out in life 
for himself. He has made up his mind just what he 
will do, and what he will not do. Independent and 
self-poised, he begins business precisely on the princi- 
ples with which he intends to go on. He has a quick 
sense of all monetary obligations ; and he pays as he 
promises. As for doubtful and precarious specula- 
tions, he shuns them as he would the Asiatic cholera. 
His main purpose is, not to be rich, and that quickly, 
but to accumulate property just so fast and so far 
only as he can do it safely and honestly. He keeps 
his liabilities small, and steadily enlarges his resources. 
He is slow to lend his name to others ; and he makes 
it manifest that all his transactions rest on a real and 
substantial basis. " Honest," as the Bible enjoins, 
" in the sight of man," and also " in the sight of the 
Lord." 

" What ! " some may say, " regard the ' sight of the 
Lord ' in one's business ? Who ever heard of doing 
that ? I think of God when I go to church, and 



BASIS OF SUCCESS. 77 

sometimes at home ; but in my store, I Ifcve some- 
thing else on my mind." Yes, and that is the root 
of all sin in human traffic. Where is the Almighty, 
and what is He, that I should care for him in trade ? 
" Where is He ? " He is there, in your counting- 
room, at your counter, just as truly as he is in your 
home, or in the house set apart for his worship. No 
bargain can be made so adroitly, or so secretly, as to 
shut out God. He is the eternal guardian of all 
right and the avenger of all wrong. He sees the 
very thoughts of your mind ; you may deceive others, 
you cannot deceive Him. 

An idea prevails, that to talk of being honest to the 
tittle in business, is to show one's ignorance of the 
world. The poet Cowles, writes thus: "A man in 
much business must either make himself a knave, or 
the world will make him out a fool." And the in- 
jury, he contends, goes further than being laughed 
at ; for, he adds, " his associates, those civil cannibals, 
as well as the wild ones, not only dance round such a 
taken-in stranger, but at last they devour him." 

I confront all such statements by bringing facts to 
the contrary. A man, you say, must lay aside all 
scruples, and do like others, or he can never make 
money. But, were the Roscoes of the old world of 
this stamp ? Were the Lawrences of our own coun- 
try and our own age, reckless and unprincipled in 

7* 



78 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

their business ? Did they acquire their wealth by 
peculation and fraud ? Let the young man, who in- 
clines to believe this, read the noble biography of 
Amos Lawrence, and he will see there one in whom 
character and reputation met together ; one as up- 
right as he was opulent. Woe to him, who, in his 
early days, turns his eyes off from such men, such 
illustrious examples in real life, and disbelieves, or 
even doubts, the possibility of treading in their steps. 
I need not go beyond the annals of my own city,* 
whose catalogue of men distinguished in many walks 
of life, intellectual, professional, mechanic, and ar- 
tistic, bears on its pages names signalized on the roll 
of princely merchants and distinguished benefactors. 
From a long list of worthy compeers, I will designate 
but two, — Lowell, a name indelibly connected with the 
manufacturing interests of New England, in the name 
of the city of Lowell ; and Jackson, his friend and 
associate. To these men, as eminent for their moral 
worth as their large pecuniary resources, — both wise 
and patriotic men they were, — we owe the noble 
project of preventing that vice as well as poverty, so 
inseparable from the manufacturing system in the old 
world, from polluting these establishments in our own 
country. By erecting boarding-houses for the female 

* Newburyport. 



BASIS OF SUCCESS. 79 

operatives, and placing over them matrons of ap- 
proved character, they secured a supply of this class, 
whose pride and virtue combined to keep them pure. 
And thus we can point to a triumph never before 
achieved, the union of pecuniary thrift and mental 
ability with high moral excellence in those employed 
in the hundreds and thousands of those gigantic struc- 
tures, whose music mingles with that of the mighty 
streams of our bold and busy North. 

Concerning Jackson, I have a further word still. 
You see in his character the germ of the man in the 
boy. When apprenticed, at the age of fifteen, he 
took " special care," we are told, " to prove to his 
master that he did not regard any thing as disgraceful 
which it was his duty to do." He took pride in 
throwing himself into the midst of the labor and re- 
sponsibihty of the business. When under twenty 
years of age, his master intrusted to him a cargo of 
merchandise, with authority, if occasion arose, to take 
the command of the vessel. Returned from his voy- 
age, he was offered a still more responsible position, 
which would take him to the far East. But the 
young apprentice was not yet of age ; and his master, 
with a liberality as creditable to himself as it was laud- 
atory of his young protege*, relinquished his claim 
upon him ; and he set forth, an adventurer, realizing 
throughout his noble mercantile career the promise 



80 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

of the word of God, " Integrity and uprightness shall 
preserve thee." His name and his praise were ulti- 
mately in all our borders. And when, by the assault 
of a violent disease, he was called suddenly to stand 
at the tribunal on high, in the language of one of our 
mercantile journals, " The spontaneous expressions of 
regret and grief that burst forth from every mouth, 
were a most touching testimonial to his virtues as 
well as his talents." 

Honor to him, who, thus on the threshold of life, 
looks out on the world, and then looks into his own 
breast ; and before God resolves, first of all things, to 
be an honest man. Honor to him who believes that 
he can be that, and still accumulate all the property 
he can reasonably desire. He may start without cap- 
ital ; though a moderate amount is certainly desirable. 
But better not a dollar, than an overgrown fortune 
by inheritance. For that, in a vast majority of cases, 
is only a curse. 

Go to Boston or New York, and seek out the 
wealthiest men in those cities ; and, almost without 
exception, they will be men who started in life with 
no capital but their own indomitable energies. They 
were poor, and compelled, therefore, to work ; and 
industry, the basis of all true success, was the rock on 
which, layer by layer, they built up their massive for- 
tunes. They illustrate the saying of Luther, "It is 



BASIS OF SUCCESS. 81 

God's way, of beggars to make men of power, as he 
made the world out of nothing." 

And this, too, may never be forgotten ; it is easier 
to make money than to keep it. He who inherits a 
vast estate, lacks, probably, that prudence, self-denial, 
and economy, essential to enduring prosperity. Ex- 
travagant courses, unwise speculations and invest- 
ments, and not seldom profligate habits, are likely to 
lead such persons soon to exhaust their patrimony. 
Better, therefore, depend upon your own brain and 
your own hands, and earn for yourselves, than look 
to a parent for your all. 

He most truly enjoys his property who knows and 
feels' that it was accumulated by his own diligence, 
frugality, wisdom, and perseverance. The happiest 
rich man I know, began life poor ; and such is the 
pattern I w T ould set before our youth. Be not dis- 
couraged if you lack large means in the outset, but 
use well what you have ; thank God for your present 
acquisitions ; bestow them to good ends, and He will 
bless you with more. 

I have assumed that prosperity is to be earnestly 
desired. Let not this aim, however, so possess the 
young man, that he will determine upon it at all haz- 
ards. This idea drives one on, in his haste to become 
rich, until it often leads to dishonest practices, to a 
factitious accumulation, to habits of extravagance, and 



82 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

finally to debt, and moral as well as pecuniary 
ruin. 

It is not surprising that our young men become 
easily inflamed with an inordinate desire for property. 
They see its power in the world ; that wealth can 
hire the strong, and retain the learned, and secure 
honor, and often place, in society. Hence pride seeks 
money to give it elevation ; and vanity seeks it. to at- 
tract the admiration and excite the envy of others ; 
and avarice seeks it to fall down and worship it. 

Money itself is good ; in the words of Solomon, 
" it answereth all things ; " not only luxury, but com- 
fort, convenience, necessity demand it. And yet the 
acquisition of it is beset with moral perils. In our in- 
sane eagerness to be rich, we delude ourselves with 
the idea that gold can fill and satisfy the soul. We 
regard no calamity so great as pecuniary want. The 
boy has his money-box, and learns to hoard as soon 
as he can speak. " The chief end of man," he is 
taught, is to make a good bargain. He is fired with 
a passion to set up business for himself prematurely ; 
and to rush into every path that seems to open out 
into a boundless accumulation. 

Two tempters stand before the young man and 
beckon him to follow them. First, a reckless specu- 
lation. Under this influence, men are ready to in- 
vest their all in land lots, and " water lots " that 



BASIS OF SUCCESS. 83 

cannot be held by stakes, and to play with lumps of 
copper as with dice. Bales of goods and risks of com- 
missions are staked at the table ; and even many kinds 
of business, once followed with honesty, moderation, 
and a healthy success, are now pursued as games 
of chance. 

Not a few thus spread out their business till it gets 
beyond their control ; they over-buy in goods ; they 
live beyond their means, trusting that at last all will 
come out well. So eager are they for all possible in- 
vestments, that, as one said, " if it were proposed to 
build a bridge to Tophet, the stock would readily be 
taken up." But soon every mercantile building, so 
founded, totters and falls ; and great is its fall. 

Others, in their passion for sudden accumulation, 
practise secret frauds, and imagine there is no harm 
in it, so they be not detected. But in vain will they 
cover up their transgression ; for God sees it to the 
bottom ; and let them not hope to keep it always from 
man. The birds of the air sometimes carry the tale 
abroad. In the long web of events, " Be sure your 
sin will find you out." He who is carrying on a 
course of latent corruption and dishonesty, be he 
president of some mammoth corporation, or engaged 
only in private transactions, is sailing in a ship like 
that fabled one of old, which ever comes nearer and 
nearer to a magnetic mountain, that will at last draw 



84 TEE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

every nail out of it. All faith in God, and all trust 
in man will eventually be lost, and he will get no re- 
ward for his guilt. The very winds will sigh forth 
his iniquity ; and " a beam will come out of the wall," 
and convict and smite him. 

Better the noble resolution of Franklin. " My 
years roll round," said he, writing to his honored 
mother in early manhood, " and the last will come, 
when I had rather have it said, ' He lived usefully,' 
than, 4 He died rich.' " 

To keep the true standard in view, one needs a 
well-grounded and imperturbable self-reliance. We 
have been led to contemplate the power and influence 
of our young men in the many spheres of this wide 
world. In the introduction of this book, I have 
dwelt largely on their virtues ; perhaps some may 
think with too indulgent an eye. But I do not for- 
get the errors and faults of this period of life. True 
it is, that there is much that is sad, much that is piti- 
ful, in some parts of this aspect. I look with regret 
and shame on what are called, significantly, our u fast 
young men ; " those who frequent the saloon and bar- 
room, to drench themselves in " fire-water ; " who, 
filled with conceit, talk large, and use big-sounding 
oaths ; whose highest ambition is to drive a fast ani- 
mal, to swear roundly, and wear flash garments ; who 
affect to look with contempt on their elders and equals, 



BASIS OF SUCCESS. 85 

as they toil in some honest occupation, and regard 
labor as a badge of disgrace. I do not forget that 
concentration of pride, self-will, and presumption, 
which scorns old age, and thinks the day of boys is a 
past absurdity ; whose folly and forwardness are styled, 
in the phrase of the times, " Young America." 

But, after all, there is a good, no less than a bad 
sense of this phrase. It is not right to despise or dis- 
parage our seniors ; or to talk in swelling words about 
rights, forgetful meanwhile of duties. But still, we 
do need the great substratum which underlies this 
same " Young America." We want its enterprise, 
to put the best thoughts and schemes of the age into 
operation. In the words of Britaine, both " confi- 
dence and industry are necessary engines to mount 
up to grandeur." Many a young man has been 
saved from vice and ruin by having a field presented 
early and opportunely to him, that stirred his ambi- 
tion, and quickened all his energies, and spurred him, 
daringly, perhaps even presumptuously, to undertake 
what a man in middle life would have shrunk from 
attempting. Put youth of this bold disposition for- 
ward ; place confidence in them ; give them station, 
trust, and power, and they will often accomplish won- 
ders. I cannot doubt that their very forwardness is, 
in some cases, their temporal salvation. 

It was a bold step, — it showed no little moral 



86 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

courage, — in that poor printer's boy, Benjamin 
Franklin, to go up and down the streets of Philadel- 
phia, eating his bread-roll without the fear of man, 
and asking for work. Yet that poor printer's boy 
made, eventually, a man that stood before kings ; and 
whose memory gathered in his native city, a few 
years since, thousands upon thousands, to witness the 
inauguration of a statue destined to commemorate 
through long ages his wisdom, integrity, and world- 
renowned patriotism. 

They were bold words, those of John Milton, 
uttered at the age of twenty-five : " Some day I shall 
address a work to posterity, which will perpetuate 
my name. in the land in which I was born." But 
Milton did live to produce a poem that will go down, 
hand in hand, with the scenes it portrays ; as death- 
less, perchance, as the volume out of which its illus- 
trious theme was drawn. 

" Young America," — we want its spirit to press 
into the mighty, and, as yet, unsurveyed West. Let 
it level the forest, and dam up the broad stream, and 
navigate the deep river, and till the wide prairie. 
Let it build cities, and crowd them with the produc- 
tions of art, mechanic skill, and rich and varied 
manufactures. May only our best young men go 
thither ; or may such but bear sway, wherever they 
travel or tarry, carrying freedom and virtue in their 
train, and we will bid them God speed. 



BASIS OF SUCCESS. 87 

Or, if they abide with us on the soil of their fathers, 
we know, so long as integrity reigns in their hearts, 
it shall be well with them. In this age of progress, 
the temper of our young men is admirably adapted 
to the genius of our country. If we can engage them 
on the side of wisdom and of God, we need have no 
fears for the expansion, in their hands, of trade, com- 
merce, business, in its multiplied forms. Washington, 
carrying a surveyor's chain at seventeen, exhibited 
the elements of every great quality, of the persever- 
ance, wisdom, honesty, sagacity, and dauntless devo- 
tion to duty, that marked him at fifty. The seed 
was then planted, and erelong it sprang up. It 
needed only the plan drawn by Providence, a bold 
revolution, a protracted struggle for life, liberty, and 
happiness ; and finally this mighty government, the 
admiration of the world, to call forth what God had 
enshrined in that massive form and peerless soul. 

I earnestly hope to eradicate the impression, so 
fatal to many a young man, that one cannot live by 
being perfectly honest. You, for whom I write, must 
have known, — /certainly have, — men who have 
gone on for years in unbroken prosperity, and yet 
never adopted that base motto, " All is fair in trade." 
You must have seen, too, noble examples of those 
w T ho have met with losses and failures, and yet risen 
from them all with a conscious integrity ; and who 



88 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

have been sustained by the testimony all around 
them, that, though unfortunate, they were never dis- 
honest? When we set before you such examples, 
when we show you, not only that " Honesty is the 
best policy,'' but that it is the very keystone of the 
whole arch of manly and Christian qualities, it cannot 
be that every ingenuous heart does not respond to 
the appeal. Heaven grant all such to feel, that an 
" Honest man is the noblest work of God ; " and to 
live as they feel. 

Now, while the imagination is fertile in schemes ; 
while the soul has not bowed to conventionalism, nor 
been chilled by doubts and fears ; while the mountain 
air of hope, and not that of the murky vales of dis- 
appointment and distrust, is the life-breath of the 
interior being ; — now is the day to set the feet in the 
God-opened path of a sound, true, and enduring 
prosperity. 

There is a stream which rises in equatorial regions, 
and flows onward and upward, warming the chilled 
waters through which it passes, and spreading mild- 
ness, verdure, and beauty over the cold and other- 
wise bleak lands of the adjacent North. So do our 
earnest young men diffuse a genial and invigorating 
influence through the whole tone of society around 
them ; quickening the slow pulse of the aged, and 
giving an impulse to their seniors in trade, art, and 



BASIS OF SUCCESS. 89 

industry. If it be but a warmth beaming from the 
rays of the great Sun of righteousness, a power which 
sheds light, and never darkness ; if it be a healthful 
heat, and never a lurid glare, blessed is the land of 
their birth and their abode. God grant such a boon 
to our homes, such a brace in our shocks and trials. 
It will be a power lifting us, as a community, ever 
nearer to the high standard of a perfect integrity, and 
an all-regarding justice, a noble and ever-expanding 
self-sacrifice, and a deep, unquestioned piety. Our 
young men have but to contend against sordid views 
and selfish purposes ; against impure principles and 
corrupt practices ; to live for the future and not for 
the present alone ; to live for God, and not for man 
supremely ; and all will be well with them and well 
with us. 

8* 



I 



MOEAL DAtfGEBS. 

N PREVIOUS chapters, I have dwelt on the 
__ power of the young man in the various spheres 
of home, business, the community, and the country. 
But power is always accompanied with danger. The 
steam-ship outstrips all the sail-craft of the seas ; and 
yet the more steam she generates, and the swifter her 
course, the more liable she is to break her machinery, 
to be enveloped in flames, or to dash against other 
vessels, and go to the bottom. And the very energy 
and celerity of youth, if ill-directed or unrestrained, 
may only involve its possessor in the speedier ruin. 

He is the truest benefactor of that age, therefore, 
who opens for it the chart, and points out to it before- 
hand, not only the good lights and the safe harbors, 
but also the rocks, reefs, and shoals. 

The first rock I name, is inexperience. It has 
been said that we learn nothing truly valuable except 
from experience. If so, what perils must lie on the 
threshold of life ? A single misstep, as we cross it, 

(90) 



MORAL DANGERS. 91 

may cause us to stumble and fall ; it may be, never to 
rise, hopelessly excluded from the high niche we 
might otherwise have filled in the temple, not only 
of honor and gain, but what is far more important, 
of personal purity. In the morning of life, imagina- 
tion and passion run their widest rounds ; while reason, 
latest developed, and yet all-controlling and all-deci- 
sive, is as yet immature. That self-poised vigor, 
which age alone can impart to perfection, is as yet 
wanting. 

I am anxious, by a few plain words, to throw a 
pebble against what seems to me an incoming tide of 
guilt and woe. And I would address myself, not to 
those alone, who, like Peter, when walking on the wa- 
ter, are " beginning to sink," but to such as tread the 
waves of life's opening sea, as yet self-reliant and firm. 

I am to speak of certain moral dangers ; and the 
first I name, as "besetting the young man, is that of 
corrupt companions. The social feelings, at this age, 
often lead to the hasty formation of acquaintances and 
friendships ; while the influence these exert on the 
opinions, tastes, and habits, is immense. Man is, to 
a great extent, the creature of imitation ; easily he 
catches the tone of thought and conduct, and con- 
forms to the manners of his associates. The process 
may be insensible ; but it is as certain to go on as 
the chameleon is to conform his hue to whatever he 



92 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

touches. And if the wise and good mould others to 
their own likeness, so do the low and unprincipled. 

This is especially true in early life. Our partiali- 
ties are then quick and tenacious ; we glide rapidly 
into the great stream that flows nearest us. In the 
material world there is a constant tendency of the 
electric fluid to an equilibrium. So it is morally 
among the young ; they either give or take wherever 
they are. Let them mingle most with the good, and 
they soon join the phalanx of virtue ; and the career of 
vice is seldom commenced except in youth. Hence, 
the company we choose and keep at the outset of life, 
will probably, under God, decide both our character 
and our whole destiny. 

The danger from this source is twofold. First, 
there are those who determine to lead, wherever they 
go ; and this resolution puts their own virtue in peril. 
Not that a desire of influence is in itself wrong ; if it 
result from a wish to do extensive good, it may be the 
spring of noble and Christian efforts. But if the mo- 
tive is a mere love of power, it is decidedly criminal. 
He who has no higher principle than this, will stop 
at no expedient whatever, to make himself popular. 
He will go beyond any one else in raillery and ridi- 
cule ; making light of vice, and ready, if the jest 
prove acceptable, to sport with truth, honesty, kind- 
ness, and even religion itself. And no young man is 



MORAL DANGERS. 93 

secure in his character one moment after he has trifled 
with the sacred names of God and duty. 

The tendency, too, of such a habit is to gather 
round one a set of companions inferior in force to 
himself. And thus, whatever is low and weak in 
them, becomes the great element in which he moves 
and breathes. He lets himself down to the level of 
the lowest ; his whole aim is to be as much like them 
as possible, in any deviation from truth and purity, 
honor and honesty, which they manifest. So are 
they reacting upon him, and bearing him constantly 
downward. Corrupt, and being corrupted, his self- 
respect tarnished, and finally destroyed, he rushes at 
last through the gate of perdition. 

The other branch of exposure in this quarter, is the 
evil of being easily enticed, into error and sin, by un- 
principled companions. Pythagoras, before admitting 
pupils into his school, inquired, " Who are their most 
intimate friends ? " And he did wisely ; for they 
who seek the society of the vicious by choice, usually 
become vicious themselves. And this, probably, with 
no such thought either in the beginning. 

They met them, perhaps, at first by accident. And, 
through fear of being thought over good, they did 
not frown on what they then felt to be wrong. By 
degrees, it appeared less and less heinous to them- 
selves. They smiled at the vulgar jest, the obscene 



94 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

allusion, and the profane word. And so it went on ; 
until at length they would laugh as loud as the loud- 
est at expressions which once shocked them ; and 
they could say and do things which, in the day of 
their purity, they regarded with horror. 

Among the several kinds of bad examples that do 
us harm, — namely, those we imitate, those we proud- 
ly exult over, those which drive us into an opposite 
extreme, and those which lower our standard, — this 
last is the most hurtful. For one who is corrupted 
by becoming readily as bad as a very bad example, 
there are ten that are debased by being content with 
the idea that they are better than the worst. Nothing 
is so dangerous as to be perpetually measuring our- 
selves by what is beneath us ; and being satisfied at 
feeling a superiority to that with which, despite our- 
selves, we more and more assimilate. 

A great principle is involved in this statement, on 
which I must for a few pages dwell. In judging 
things outward and secular, we act always in view of 
some particular standard. When we speak of an 
article as good or bad, there is a scale in our minds, 
by which we measure it ; and hence, what is suffi- 
cient in one estimate, is insufficient in another. This 
principle applies equally to moral and spiritual things. 
To say of one that he is a good man, implies that 
we judge him by .some determinate standard. By 



MORAL DANGERS. 95 

another standard, he may not be a good man ; he 
may even be a bad man. 

Nothing then, it will be perceived, is of more vital 
importance to those in youth and early manhood, 
than to adopt a true standard. If you fail on this 
point, you may come to be satisfied with the very 
smallest moral attainments. Only bring your stand- 
ard down low enough, and there is no point of degra- 
dation to which you may not sink, and still acquit 
yourself of guilt. Hence, the main safe-guard of 
character consists in keeping the rule by which we 
estimate ourselves at the greatest possible height. 

In view of this vital truth, the Scriptures have 
given us a clear and definite standard ; it is this : he 
only is truly good, who is so when judged by the law 
of God. 

But the standard taken by the vast majority, is not 
the law of God ; it is the law of man. They ask : 
" How do the world judge ? What will satisfy hu- 
man opinion ? " Instead of measuring themselves by 
the judgment of the Unerring One, they place their 
character before man's tribunal ; and if acquitted by 
that, they are content. 

Nay, multitudes go down still lower; they do not 
strive to live up even to the law of human opinion. 
They take the actions of others as their standard ; 
and think it enough to conduct themselves as well as 



96 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

they do. Yes, worse even than that ; they look at 
the very lowest point to which this or that man ever 
falls, and say within themselves : " There is my mark ; 
so long as I do no worse than that, I shall be safe. 
Such an one passes for a respectable man ; and he 
indulges, sometimes, this or that propensity, which I 
also enjoy ; so then may I. Here is an individual 
who now stands high in the community ; and once at 
least, if never but once, he did this very thing I now 
think of doing. He lived through it, and came out 
well ; so can I ; in any event, with his example be- 
fore me, I will risk it." 

But, look at this position. Let us for a moment 
adopt this rule of action in other relations. Take the 
case of business ; what young man, when he com- 
mences in life for himself, searches through the city 
for some one who has most mercantile faults, who 
neglects his customers, trusts every one, and to any 
amount, and is careless and negligent in all his busi- 
ness habits ; and takes him as a model ? On the 
contrary, every one looks up to the man whose habits 
are the most correct, in the counting-room and on the 
exchange, — to the man who, by skill and industry, 
by honor and honesty, by every high mercantile trait, 
has been prospered in a long career, and who stands 
among the first on the roll of merchant princes. 

Or, take another field of human pursuits. What 



MORAL DANGERS. 9? 

young man who prizes intellectual acquisitions, goes 
for his model to the mental drone, or to the most 
ignorant person within his knowledge ? Nay, it is 
never so ; he who would reach intellectual excellence, 
does not set before himself those more ignorant and 
indolent than he is ; but he looks up to the very high- 
est among men of genius, to the richly endowed, and 
the nobly cultured of his race. There is his stand- 
ard ; there his aim ; and thither his aspirations turn. 
Why then, to be consistent with ourselves, do we 
not, in the pursuit of character, instead of letting the 
God-elevated standard down, low and still lower, 
until it reaches some one as erring and as guilty as 
ourselves, and that in our lowest estate, why do we 
not keep it resolutely up, and let our motto be, " Ex- 
celsior ? " 

We may be urged to do this by the disastrous 
effects that follow the habit of measuring ourselves 
by ourselves. 

Think, for example, of the noble gift of conversa- 
tion, what opportunities are these of elevating the 
moral principles, each of his brother ! How glorious 
is this privilege, to fan the smoking flame of incipient 
virtue, and to strengthen the generous impulses, and 
enhance the pureness, one of the other ! But, what 
is our common conversation ? Eliminate its wasted 
words ; take the main tenor of much of it, and what 



98 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

is it but heartless frivolities, contests for the palm 
between the busy-body and the gossip, talk about 
persons, and not about principles ? Speech, instead 
of being, as it might be, a world of good, is thus made 
" a world of iniquity." It is that dread, white gun- 
powder, which the dreamy projectors of silent mis- 
chief and insensible poisons, so warily sought of 
old. 

And now, what keeps conversation down to this 
miserable level ? The almost universal practice of 
sinking our own minds to the tone of the lowest in 
the circle we meet, and to the poorest thoughts of our 
daily associates. The great current of conversation 
thus sweeps downward. We do not watch for the 
best words, the purest feelings, the highest concep- 
tions of others, and follow them, and raise the tone 
still higher ; but we slide evermore down. The im- 
pure allusion is, in many places, succeeded by some- 
thing still more impure ; the sub-oath by bold pro- 
fanity ; the slight over-statement by the outright 
falsehood. Measuring ourselves by ourselves, we 
utter swelling words, if not for the admiration of the 
most corrupt, yet in keeping with the least elevated 
sentiments of those to whom we speak. 

What so depresses the moral grade of society in 
general ? Why is virtue so often bereft of her white 
plumage, and draggled in the mire ? Simply because, 



MORAL DANGERS. 99 

instead of comparing ourselves with the law of God, 
we accept the law of man as our sufficient rule of 
conduct. The corner-stone of our character is conven- 
tionalism ; what the little world we move in agree to 
call good, that to us is good. Hence, instead of hav- 
ing a fixed and absolute standard in our own breast, 
we adopt the sliding scale of fashion, custom, and 
society. God has set up beacon lights to warn us of 
the rocks of sin and death ; but we are content to 
trust the taper we have affixed to our own frail 
craft. 

There are some who imagine all virtue consists in 
imitation. They are led hither and thither, as versa- 
tile as the vane on the spire. If it is the way of their 
companions to be coarse, low, earthly-minded, sen- 
suous, it is their way. They regard character as 
made up of a poor clay, plastic to every potter they 
meet. "A time man," to change one word in an 
apophthegm of a modern sound writer, " A true man, 
in the bustling crowds of this present world, will find 
himself often in a position of oppugnancy to those 
around him ; and he must struggle in order to stand 
still." For the sustentation of moral worth, we need, 
not only affinities, but often resistance. It is some- 
times pleasant, and perhaps safe, to yield wholly to 
the will of others ; but there come to us all, moments, 
when we must take a stand by ourselves ; when we 



100 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

must put forth a personal energy, and drive back the 
rushing waters of temptation and guilt. Then, as at 
a crisis, on which hangs the great moral issue of life 
or death, — then, God help thee, my young friend, 
to say, no. 

The bane of social purity is the proneness of man- 
kind to justify themselves in their wrong deeds by 
the wrong deeds of others. " If those in our own 
business act on this or that principle, why should not 
we ? Why concern ourselves to be any better than 
they ? " To be scrupulously honest, is considered a 
weakness. If you are governed by any principle 
higher than those of your sect, your party or clique, 
you subject yourself to a sneer. 

A wise man, say some, will look at the opinions of 
those around him, and believe as they believe. It is 
the fool only who deviates from the rank and file of 
his associates. The doctrine of Paul is old-fashioned 
and obsolete. Measure yourselves by yourselves, 
and compare yourselves with yourselves, that is the 
true wisdom. 

Most of us possess an inordinate desire for the 
praise of others. Not a few absolutely live and 
breathe on the language of compliment. And what 
is that language ? We are not independent of each 
other ; God does not require us to steel ourselves 
against the judgment of our neighbor. We may 



MORAL DANGERS. 101 

properly desire the approbation of others ; for appro- 
bation refers to what is morally right. Bnt praise is 
a merely personal thing ; it makes no moral distinc- 
tions ; a fair skin is as good a theme for it as a fair 
deed. It says, " you are beautiful or good ; " not, 
" this or that act of yours was good." And it makes 
us, too, instead of saying, " this man has done accord- 
ing to the law of God," say, " how finely he did, so 
much better than others." But, what if he did? He 
paid his old debts, perhaps, after being bankrupt. 
Well and good ; but is that a work of supererogation ? 
Nay, he only did his simple duty, while most others 
do not do theirs. 

The practice in question is fraught with untold mis- 
chief. Conscience, busy in self-justification, when 
stung by the sin of pride, anger, indolence, or penu- 
riousness, says to itself, " but after all, here are others 
as proud, as passionate, as idle, as penurious as I am ; 
yes, we are none of us perfect ; and I must not ex- 
pect to be." And thus our young men, instead of 
taking wings and soaring like the spiritual bird, and 
lifting others into the same serene and pure atmos- 
phere, are in danger of creeping along with the rep- 
tile brood who aspire to nothing better than dust like 
themselves. 

Would I could portray the arts of the moral de- 
coyer. See how he studies character, searches out 

9* 



102 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

the weak points of others,* and, perhaps, shows them 
personal favors, the better to secure his victim. Is he 
manly, independent, and bold ? He is told that re- 
ligion is a contrivance of priestcraft ; all piety is hy- 
pocrisy ; away with such superstition ; and that much 
of what is called morality is a mere name, used to rob 
people of their rightful liberties. Is the victim a mod- 
est youth ? He is approached by gentler means. A 
blush is raised by impure words ; and if he whisper a 
doubt, the laugh is upon him, and his virtue is put 
out of countenance. And, to their shame be it said, 
the corrupters of the young are so filled with the 
mean, creeping, guileful spirit of the serpent, that, 
like their great prototype, who assailed first the pure 
and gentle Eve, they often select, for their favorite 
subjects, the most modest young men. 

Paul, in his portrait of the foul vices of heathen 
communities, speaks of those who not only do evil 
themselves, but " have pleasure in them " who commit 
sin. Such delight in nothing so much as to see one 
fall from his pristine virtue. And, to this end, they 
know well, that no instrument is so effective as to 
shake the confidence of the young in the reality and 
the worth of character. They tell them that gener- 
erosity is a garb for secret selfishness ; he who obliges 
you, does it only to get you into his power ; the ap- 
parently honest either act from policy, or they are 



MORAL DANGERS. 103 

" too verdant " to know any better. These persons 
bear the name, perhaps, of " pleasant fellows ; " and 
their voice and manner beguile the unwary. But 
beware of their presence ; it is- like the foetid atmos- 
phere of an air-tight room, poison, and poisoning in- 
sensibly, but all the more surely. The prisoners of 
Newgate once spent all their time, it is said, in ridi- 
culing every appearance of virtue in each other. 
They thus, by striking down the very name of good- 
ness, sunk themselves to the lowest possible depths of 
guilt. The best men and the most illustrious charac- 
ters have thus been brought into suspicion ; and their 
reputation has been ruined. Guard against the deso- 
lating power of such persons as — 

" Ne'er raise their thoughts beyond the earth they tread, 
But these can censure, those can dare deride 
A Bacon's avarice, or a Tully's pride." 

I name as another moral danger, a haste to become 
rich. Time was when a young man would commence 
business with a small capital ; be content to buy goods 
when he could pay for them ; trade with responsible 
customers, make moderate gains, hire a small tene- 
ment, and graduate his expenses by his income. But, 
step by step, this good old path has been deserted ; 
until now the sons often commence business with an 
overgrown stock, purchased on long credit ; they 



104 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

trust all men, and to all desired amounts ; hire a 
costly tenement, and adorn it with rich furniture ; 
give elegant parties ; and live in all respects, not ac- 
cording to their actual means and resources, but either 
on the property of others, or on some imaginary 
thousands to be accumulated in the future. And 
what is the result ? Bankruptcy, going into chan- 
cery, and making profits out of a compromise with 
deluded and hapless creditors. If the law of man will 
shield such transactions, we know well, as sure as 
there is a God in heaven, He must frown on the act 
and the actor. 

The habits referred to lie at the basis of the long 
array of defalcations, frauds, and embezzlements, of 
which the journals of the day give such fearful dis- 
closures. The fast clerk takes money from the drawer 
of his employer ; and we are startled by announce- 
ments of some State officer or corporation treasurer, 
or some cashier of a bank, detected in a career which 
dates back through long years of artful stratagems 
employed to abstract money from the funds in his 
charge, for private extravagance and vice. Some 
otherwise good man, tempted, it may be, by the chance 
for a rare investment, is arraigned before a court of jus- 
tice ; and through some loophole in the coarse meshes 
of the great net of the law, he is suffered to escape 
his deserts, and becomes the recipient of a wide-spread 



MORAL DANGERS. 105 

sympathy and forgiveness. And so ends many a 
chapter, blotted over with reckless speculations, and 
closing with a God-defying, man-robbing guilt. 

Many seem to think themselves safe so long as the 
law cannot touch them. Not a few, indeed, appear 
to be satisfied with this degree of virtue. No matter 
what unfairness, pretence, and falsity they may prac- 
tise ; no matter of what dishonorable practices they 
stand guilty ; why condemn these things ? The law 
allows them. They can take advantage of others' 
misfortunes ; prey upon the ignorant, overreach the 
weak, practise every kind of stratagem and craft un- 
der heaven, and still violate no statute on the book. 
And, if charged with crime, and brought before a 
court of justice, they have, in some instances, but to 
employ unscrupulous counsel, bribe the witness, and 
blind the juror, and be brought before a partisan 
judge, and they escape the condemnation of the law. 
And w T ho then shall dare refuse to call them innocent 
men ? Verily, " there is a way which seemeth right, 
but the end thereof are the ways of death." 

Look for a moment at our public relations and de- 
portment. We see frauds in naval and military con- 
tracts that astound us, corruption in high places, charges 
of bribery, too well founded, it must be feared, in some 
instances ; Ave see a passion for office, and for fast rising, 
that resorts to expedients at variance with honor and 



106 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

integrity. In the press^ too, we not seldom lack the 
brave and pure spirit of Franklin. Soon after his es- 
tablishment in Philadelphia, he was offered an article 
to publish in his newspaper. Being very busy, he 
begged the gentleman to leave it for his considera- 
tion. The next day the author called, and asked his 
opinion of it. Franklin replied : " Why, sir, I am sorry 
to say I think it highly scurrilous and defamatory. 
Being at a loss, on account of. my poverty, whether to 
reject it or not, I thought I would put it to this issue. 
At night, when my work was done, I bought a two- 
penny loaf, on which, with a mug of water, I supped 
heartily ; and then, wrapping myself in my great 
gown, I slept very soundly on the floor till morning ; 
when another loaf and a mug of water afforded me a 
breakfast. Now, sir, since I can live comfortably in 
this manner, why should I prostitute my press to per- 
sonal hatred and party passion, for a more luxurious 
living ? " 

I pass to another vice of the day, profane swearing. 
It is gaining fearfully in our community. Little boys, 
as one passes them in the streets, startle him by their 
oaths. What is to be our condition, if this sin goes 
on undiminished and unrebuked ? Our youth will 
come to such degradation , that thev will be uhcon- 
s'cious of their profanity ; and willpperhaps, deny that 
they are guilty of it. But look at it ; there is some- 



MORAL DANGERS. 107 

thing terrifying in the thought that one, whose breath 
is in his nostrils, can call upon God to curse a mortal 
man, or the poor horse he has overladen, or, perhaps, 
even the stumbling-block over which he falls ; wish- 
ing one with whom he is enraged were " in hell," or 
invoking the holy Jesus at every turn in his conver- 
sation. 

What is there to justify this language ? It is 
braving the very Being who created us, and on 
whose goodness we live ; it is trampling the Bible 
under our feet ; it is vulgar and ungentlemanly. 
Washington once heard a fellow officer, then dining 
at his table, utter an oath. "I thought," said he, — 
dropping his knife and fork, and speaking with his 
peculiar dignity, — " I thought we all supposed our- 
selves gentlemen." After dinner the officer said to 
one of his companions, that, if the general had struck 
him over the head with his sword, he could have 
borne it, but that home thrust which he gave him, 
was overpowering ; "it was too much for a gentle- 



man." 



What profit is there in this foul language ? Said a 
young man to me, " I was profane, when a boy." 
" And why did you leave it off? " I asked. " Be- 
cause," he replied, " in the first place, it seemed to 
me useless." And pray, what good can it possibly 
do to interlard one's speech with this wretched dia- 
lect? 



108 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

"It chills my blood to hear the blest Supreme 
Kudely appealed to on each trifling theme. 
Maintain your rank; vulgarity despise. 
To swear is neither brave, polite, nor wise." 

Would you escape this low habit, I warn you to 
mark well when you are beginning to sink into its 
foul embrace. Avoid coarse, slang phrases ; do not, 
on any occasion, deal in imprecations and protesta- 
tions. Keep clear of half-oaths, and that border 
phraseology which carries you over, unawares, into 
the territory of open profanity. Reverence always 
the name of God ; and be slow to pronounce it at 
any time ; let every subject, person, and place that is 
sacred, receive your respect. No one, with any true 
honor for God or for man, will defile his lips by an 
oath. 

Among the moral dangers of our young men, I 
name another, intemperance. In introducing this 
topic, let me say, I am no extremist on the subject of 
temperance in general. Looking at the constitution 
of man, his natural desire for some beverage beyond 
that of simple water, even though it be but the cup 
at his morning and evening meal, " which cheers, but 
not inebriates;" — and regarding, especially, the ap- 
parent demand in our colder latitudes for some drink 
beside mere water, — I have felt an interest in the 
culture of the vine on our own soil ; and have 



MORAL DANGERS. 109 

thought that we might thus obtain an element as free 
from intoxicating properties as the light wines used 
of old in Palestine, and now used with impunity in 
the south of Europe. 

But, be this as it may, so long as we can have no 
security against the adulteration of those forms of 
stimulating drinks now common among us, my posi- 
tion is, in regard to their use as a beverage, for the 
sake, not only of temperance, but of mind and body, 
of health and of life itself, — " touch not, taste not, 
handle not." Look at the statistics on this subject. 
A well-known dealer, in a recent publication, assures 
us, that three-fourths of all foreign liquors are im- 
ported for the express purpose of adulterations ; and, 
in this process, subtle poisons, as I have before said, 
both vegetable and mineral, are recklessly employed. 
Hence it is, that, while our fathers could partake of 
alcoholic beverages in moderation, with comparative 
safety, for us to do so is to trifle knowingly with 
health and life. It is, in many instances, not only 
the sure precursor of ultimate disease ; it is not only 
rushing through the paths that lead to mental and 
moral delirium, but to partake habitually and delib- 
erately, of thosfc adulterated and baleful drugs, is in- 
sanity itself. This is a fatal rock, therefore, against 
which, with my whole soul, and for every reason, as 
among their sincerest friends, I warn our young men. 
10 



110 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

Let me here point out the special scenes and occa- 
sions of their peril. They are not so liable as others 
to secret indulgence in the cup ; their chief danger is 
from social drinking. A pleasant companion, some 
" good-hearted fellow," — a name which not seldom 
covers, in connection with generous and laudable 
qualities, tendencies to sensuality and a lack of stern 
moral principle, — such a one invites you to take a 
friendly glass. He asks you in a small company, or 
on some. public occasion, to taste the wine cup. And 
why should you not do it ? " Others are drinking, 
and why be so singular as to decline ? " If it is right, 
then do it ; but if it is wrong, then be a man, and 
say no. So long as you can pronounce that little 
word, you are safe. With sufficient moral courage, 
we can always resist the strongest tempters. 

But why should you do this ? Why not " do as 
the rest do ? " Ah, that is the very point and peril 
of the moment. This tame, yielding spirit, has been 
the ruin of thousands. A young man is invited, by a 
circle of vicious companions, to visit a dram shop or 
saloon ; he hesitates ; " shall I go, or not ? " is the 
question. Reluctantly, he accepts the invitation. 
He goes again and again ; wastes his time ; squanders 
his property ; becomes at last an inebriate ; and sinks 
soon into an untimely grave. What destroyed him ? 
" Doing as the rest did." 



MORAL DANGERS. Ill 

"But the author is too fast ; I am not going to 
drink to excess. Can I not stop when I please ? Do 
you think I have no control of my appetite?" My 
friend, if you are so strong as you boast, why not 
refuse to touch the deadly thing ; show your power 
in that way. Thomas H. Benton, explaining how it 
came that, at his advanced age, he was blessed with 
the absence of those infirmities which are supposed to 
belong to it, said, he owed it to the course of his .earlv 

CD ' ' v 

life. Franklin was once called " The American 
Aquatic," because he drank nothing but water. In 
that respect he had imitated Franklin. He totally 
abstained for the first half of his life ; and was tem- 
perate the other half. He had, he said, not only 
abstained from spirituous liquors, vinous liquors, fer- 
mented liquors, and every thing of the sort, but he 
had kept himself free from every kind of dissipation. 
He knew no game whatever: and to that moment, 
could not tell, when looking at a party playing cards, 
which was the loser and which the winner. He had 
often sat up all night, watching the sick, or on mili- 
tary duty ; and a book had often kept him awake ; 
but he had never spent one night in dissipation. 

Unless you, my young friends, go and do likewise, 
you may soon take the first step in that long proces- 
sion, every one of whom in the outset said, like you, 
44 1 can drink as little as I please, and stop when I 



112 THE BLADE AXD THE EAR. 

want to." And yet, see the consequences. The 
habit once upon them, day by day its spell grew 
stronger ; by little and little thev went on and down ; 
until property, health, mind, morals, soul, and life 
were whirled into that vortex of despair and death, 
the drunkard's grave. 

If I saw a young man standing in .the street and 
listening to one who would decoy him to take the 
tempting death-glass, I would beseech him to pause. 
Do you care, I would ask, for God, man, mind, 
morals, or even health ? When the cholera raged in 
New York, they who had debauched themselves with 
alcohol were its first and surest victims. And, if you 
would derive good from these stimulants in sickness 
and age, abstain from them in health and youth. If 
you would not run the risk of dying amid the horrors 
of delirium tremens, then " touch not, taste not," 
now. Does the future life affect you at all ? " No 
drunkard," says the Bible, "can inherit the kingdom 
of heaven." 

Consider, finally, that, if you five on, the polluted 
joys of youth cannot be the joys of old age ; though 
its guilt and the sting left behind, will endure. I 
know well, that the path of strict virtue is steep and 
rugged. But, for the stern discipline of temperance, 
the hardship of self-denial, the crushing of appetite 
and passion, there will be the blessed recompense of a 



MORAL DANGERS. 113 

cheerful, healthful manhood, and an honorable old 
age. Yes, higher and better than all temporal re- 
turns, live for purity of speech and thought ; live for 
an incorruptible character ; have the courage to begin 
the great race, and the energy to pursue the glorious 
prize ; foresee your danger, arm against it, trust in 
God, and you will have nothing to fear. If, at any 
moment, your faith in God and the right is failing, 
then lay your ear to the earth ; for the ground is 
trembling beneath your feet ; and you know not how 
soon it may yawn and swallow you up. If, when on 
the wild waters of temptation, the wind grows bois- 
terous, the storm begins to howl, and you find your 
trusted resolutions falter before the tempter, and you 
are beginning to sink, cry out on the instant : " Lord, 
save me ; " and immediately the same all-potent, ever- 
gracious One, who caught up Peter in his peril, will 
stretch forth his hand and save you. 



10* 



VI. 

EECEEATIONS. 

HUMAN LIFE and the human constitution both 
confirm the truth of the words of Sacred Writ : 
" To every thing there is a season, and a time to 
every purpose under heaven." " A time to weep, 
and a time to laugh ; a time to mourn, and a time 
to dance." We cannot pursue any one employ- 
ment, nor any single course of action, day upon day 
and year upon year, with no variation and with no 
respite, except by a manifest violation of the laws 
of our Creator. There is no outward object what- 
ever, so good, so useful, and so safe, that we can give 
ourselves up to it without limitation and without re- 
serve. If we must labor diligently, the command is 
equally imperative, at fit seasons to rest. Neither the 
body nor the mind can endure unremitted toil. The 
time will come when the overtasked frame will re- 
monstrate against its abuse ; and the intellect, when 
kept strained on and on to its utmost tensity, avenges 
itself at last, either by determined insanity or the 
drivelling of idiocy. 

(114) 



RECREATIONS. 115 

Such being our nature, why should the great sub- 
ject of the recreation of our powers and faculties re- 
ceive so little wise attention ? Why is it excluded 
from the pulpit ? Why does the preacher allude to 
amusements, only to sweep them from all Christian 
regard, by one sentence of universal condemnation ? 
How has it come' to pass that religion is supposed to 
have no connection with this topic, except to make 
the test of piety, — " Will you renounce the vanities 
of this world?" — meaning thereby, all that we in- 
clude in the word recreations ? Can it be right and 
truly Christian to teach the young, or leave them by 
our conduct to infer, that every thing known as popu- 
lar amusement, when indulged in, must be concealed 
or connived at, and kept out of the realm of con- 
science ? If relaxations are not wrong in themselves, 
but in accordance with the law of God, then they 
ought to be, not put under a ban, but, so far as they 
are innocent and right, openly encouraged and hon- 
estly enjoyed. They should be subjected, like every 
other part of life, to the test of sober reason and true 
purity. Instead of making amusements a prohibited 
topic, we ought frequently to introduce them, and 
bring them under the principles of religion. Our 
watchfulness and Christian fidelity, and our prayers 
even, should extend as much to recreations as to the 
cares and temptations of business. 



116 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

The effect of the popular view of this matter is 
detrimental to the whole sphere of Christian morals. 
Not a few imagine that the sins of amusement are far 
greater than the sins of business. But is it indeed 
so ? By no means ; the heinousness of our trans- 
gressions is not measured by the sphere in which they 
are committed. The utility of business is no more a 
screen from its vices, than the enjoyment of sensuous 
pleasures is a good plea against them. Besides, the 
field of occupation and affairs is much larger than 
that of amusements ; and therefore it brings with it 
more temptations. Hence, let the sins of recreation 
be great as they may, those of business, — taking the 
community at large, — are always still greater. Yet 
how many are committing, unrebuked, absolute abom- 
inations in business, while they take great credit to 
themselves, meantime, for their stern opposition to 
amusements. 

We are attempting to sustain the error of the Pu- 
ritans. They prohibited all recreations, and sought 
to make youth as sober as age, and the son as grave 
as the sire. But the result was then, as it is now, 
that, to forbid the young sinful amusements, without 
offering them a substitute of innocent ones, is to make 
them restive under our unreasonable restraints ; and 
finally, — defiant of public censure, — to break over 
them all, and rush into the paths of guilt and de- 
struction. 



RECREATIONS. 117 

But some may ask, why we need take any rec- 
reation as such. I answer, because God intended 
it ; lie has shown this, by the framework of our na- 
ture. If, in this regard, he appointed " a time to 
mourn," he decreed also a " time to laugh." He 
created in man a propensity to mirth ; and why ? 
For the same reason as he gave us a propensity to 
labor, to love, and to enjoy. That, in its proper 
modes and degrees, we might exercise this disposition. 

To make his purpose in this regard sure, he has 
surrounded us with objects and occasions to awaken 
our mirth. The world is not all sadness ; the heavens 
are not hung with black ; we do not live and move 
amid scenes of a preponderating gloom. No, on the 
contrary, the prevailing tone of nature is cheerful 
and joyous. Listen to the sweet music of the birds ; 
mark the sports of the animals ; observe the waves 
dance to the sea-shore, and the trees clap their leafy 
hands. And what is man, that he should drudge in 
the furrow, or toil at the anvil or the work-bench for- 
ever? or load his mind with cares until he impairs its 
best powers, and at last destroys its elasticity ? They 
who declaim against all recreations as hostile to relio- 
ion, clearly do violence to the behests of their Maker. 
It cannot be that He would countermand, either in 
Scripture or the true dictates of reason and con- 
science, what he himself has made essential to our 
health, our labors, and our usefulness. 



118 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

If all recreations are sinful, why has a kind Provi- 
dence done so much to regale our senses, and minister 
to our delight ? Far from confining his gifts to our 
absolute bodily wants, he has bestowed on us unnum- 
bered gratuities. They come in the rich and delicious 
fruits of the earth, in the fragrance of uncounted 
flowers, in the beauty with which he has robed the 
whole external universe. Everywhere we see benefi- 
cent arrangements to succor the weary, and guide the 
languid into scenes of refreshing. Not only does he 
supply bread for our hunger, but he " maketh us to 
lie down in green pastures, and leadeth us beside the 
still waters ; " and when we are bowed down with 
life's cares and burdens, " he restoreth the soul." 

I find in the pages of revelation no warrant for the 
exclusion of this topic from our notice, and no dero- 
gation of proper amusements. The sacred record 
informs us that, when God had finished his crea- 
tions, " he rested from his work." The history of 
the Jews, his chosen people, shows us a race, who, so 
far from frowning on recreations, connected them 
closely even with their most sacred services. Miriam 
struck the timbrel and danced, as she sang of the 
goodness of God ; and David " played before the 
Lord." The whole tone of Judaism is cheerful and 
buoyant; and no one can question that the Hebrew 
recognized the presence of his God as much in his 



RECREATIONS. 119 

hours of relaxation as in the midst of his gravest 
labors. Rest and recreation, every thing joyous and 
salutary and beneficent to mind and body, was inter- 
mingled with his religion. 

We call the Divine Being our Creator ; but who 
can question that He as much sanctions the renova- 
tion of his creatures, as their original production ? 
In the very word recreation, we find a confirmation 
of this view. It signifies re-creation ; and the second 
act is as innocent and as good as the first. This work 
is going on continually ; not by one act alone does 
God create man. In a spiritual sense, the Bible tells 
us, we are now and still, " created in righteousness," 
and " created in Christ Jesus." The Father is said 
to create, that is, recreate all things in Him. 

Even so does he in our physical frame re-create our 
energies. And he calls us to cooperate with him in 
this exalted office. We are ourselves to form such 
habits of life as will renew our exhausted bodies, 
revive the depressed spirit, give fresh zest to our 
being, maintain the healthful action of the mind, pre- 
serve conscience in its vigor, give energy to the will, 
and deepen and expand also our purest and highest 
affections. 

The course pursued by our Saviour is most observ- 
able in this connection. He was no ascetic ; so far 
from denouncing all scenes of enjoyment, he partici- 



120 TEE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

pated in those customary in his age. John the Bap- 
tist renounced every gratification of this kind ; but 
Christ was present at a marriage festival in Cana ; 
and, although bearing the weight of his great mission 
upon him, he noticed and commented upon those 
who sat in the markets, and said to their fellows, 
" we have piped unto you, and ye have not danced." 
He entered, we thus perceive, into the amusements 
of boys, as he did, on another occasion, into the dis- 
position and manners of " babes." 

So far, indeed, are pure recreations from being 
sinful, that, in a Christian light, we shall regard them 
as a duty. Every one, who is industrious, active, 
and earnest in his occupation, - — and that we all 
should be, — is bound to adopt himself, and sanction 
in others, some form of relaxation. 

I do not see how we can exempt any class, any 
age or occupation, from this call. The little child 
does not usually need exhortations on this point. 
The kind Author of his being, predisposes him to 
abundant pastimes. The very young only require 
instruction and guidance on this great subject. But 
there are some, whose temperament or occupation in 
early life leads them to neglect recreation. And 
those in midlife are not to lay aside this work ; even 
though it be a work, and at first a task, let no one think 
to escape the penalty of a failure to secure a sound 



RECREATIONS. 121 

mind in a sound body. No class can live without a 
daily regard to the laws of health, to physical exer- 
cise, and mental relaxation. God and nature plead 
with all to seek an occasional respite from their 
labors. Let them heed the monition before it is too 
late. This is the true economy of life and strength. 

This brings me to the important, and somewhat 
difficult topic ; in what way can we wisely, safely, 
and profitably, seek recreation ? It is wise to adapt 
our relaxations to our personal necessities. Among 
these, we are to consider the requirements of our 
special employment. If it is active, involving manual 
labor or bodily locomotion, then we need sedentary 
recreations. For us the well-selected library should 
have powerful attractions. History, poetry, travels, 
science, — think how the mind may recruit itself 
through these ; and elevate and ennoble its stores, by 
communion with the bright and broad intellects of 
present and past days. Study God's presence in 
" the glory of good and true lives," no less than in 
the realm of philosophy, morals, and religion. Do 
not grasp every thing that falls from a prolific press ; 
but select the best books ; and ponder, digest, and 
absorb them into your own mind, heart, land life. 

Those whose occupation is sedentary, should pay 
special heed to muscular exercises. Wander abroad 
under the canopy of the fair heavens ; roam over the 



u 



122 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

green fields in midsummer. If you can travel, refresh 
jour weary spirit occasionally by interchange with 
others in foreign lands, or in remote portions of your 
own country. If this is denied you, then seek other 
methods of diversion. Yes, that is the precise word, 
— diversion. You need something to divert your 
thoughts from severe mental toil and over-burdening 
cares. Participate in the pure pleasures of music ; 
spend an occasional hour in the garden ; pursue the 
pleasures of the fields or the waters ; indulge in any 
harmless pastime, so it turn off the mind from what is 
oppressive and painful, renew your intellectual ener- 
gies, ward off depression, and reanimate your whole 
nature. 

I am glad to know that some of our colleges are 
taking up this subject in earnest. At Amherst, the 
students are required to go into the gymnasium as 
regularly as to their recitations. I wish it were so in 
eveiy institution, high or low, where our youth are 
educated. At Harvard, these exercises are all volun- 
tary; and, in consequence, they are pursued, never 
with regularity, but only at intervals, and when fashion- 
able and popular. I owe a large debt to the lamented 
Dr. Follen ffrr the first lessons he ever gave in this 
department, then new in the country. Would that 
a compulsion in this matter had been previously laid 
on me, in preparatory studies and in college. But at 



RECREATIONS. 123 

that period of my life, no friendly voice intimated that 
a sound body was essential to a sound mind. 

Touching recreations, .we are to shun every thing 
pernicious in its nature and tendencies. Indulge in 
no amusement which will injure your health ; none 
which will obliterate a sense of the great purpose of 
life ; none which can be enjoyed only by the sacrifice 
of the peace and usefulness of others ; none which 
foster vanity, jealousy, and pride. If any recreation 
tends to degrade the intellect, and pamper the sensual 
appetites, to obscure our mental or moral powers, or 
enfeeble, and not strengthen us, then it is sinful. 
And when we pursue amusement to excess, making 
that the substance of our lives, which should be only 
an occasional thing, and a "diversion;" — when we 
waste our time, cherish habits of extravagance, and 
indulge in courses that, far from renovating the frame 
and giving new zest to duty, — tend to imbrute our 
whole being, we do not re-create, but impair, and may 
at last destroy, both body and soul. 

Let us learn a lesson from the old* world on this 
subject. In France, there are a thousand moderate 
exercises and harmless amusements, which serve to 
while away the evening or beguile a vacant summer's 
afternoon. But we Americans, are prone to think 
recreation is one with carousal and excess ; we rush 
on to lavishness, boisterousness, and exhaustion, where, 
11* 



12 t THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

with a true spirit, we should have frugality, simplicity, 
and a quiet and genuine enjoyment. 

Would that we might learn wisdom on this topic 
before it is too late. And let not the whole responsi- 
bility be laid on the young. Indiscreet parents often 
fail to provide innocent and interesting recreations for 
their children at home ; and so virtually compel them 
to seek the saloon, the gaming-table, and the haunts 
of licentiousness abroad. They drive them from their 
own door for lack of aught to amuse them ; and they, 
in effect, force them to indulge in the society of the 
coarse, lewd, and profane, by not cultivating, for 
their sakes, pure conversation and attractive enter- 
tainments at the fireside. They neglect to provide 
good books for their children ; and thus tempt them 
to peruse writings which encourage corrupt tastes, 
lead to secret vices, and degrade and brutalize the 
immortal spirit. Better, by far, we say to the parent, 
participate in their sports, and invent new ones for 
them, confining yourself through the long evenings 
to their society, than live to witness in them this mel- 
ancholy result. 

Would parents, instead of forbidding every form 
of popular amusements, indulge their children in par- 
taking of them in their own presence and with mode- 
ration, I believe many a young man might be saved 
from the dens of sensuality, sin and death. But 



RECREATIONS. 125 

when we provide no recreations at home, we have 
only to lay our ban on every thing of the kind 
abroad, to complete the moral ruin of our sons. That 
parent who makes the fireside dull and unwelcome, 
wrongs his children as much, in the end, as if he did 
what would render them positively irreligious. He 
does indeed sometimes, by disregarding their youthful 
and innocent tastes, make the very names of God, 
Christ, and heaven, which should ring like sweet 
music on the young ear, repulsive and odious. 

The right domestic education in this and kindred 
matters was never so important as at this moment It 
is said the present war is carrying many of our young 
men into the vortex of dissipation, to the cup, the 
gaming-table, and the house of ill-fame. If it be 
so, let there be one united and solemn voice of 
rebuke. Parent, ruler, moralist, minister of the gos- 
pel, — with earnest, trumpet-tongued utterance, " let 
them cry aloud, and spare not." And, when others 
are summoned to bear arms for our country, God 
grant that they go with such principles and such 
habits as shall be proof against that enemy, worse 
than lead or steel, the enemy of a character, de- 
bauched by impurities and excesses, the seeds of 
which were borne with them from haunts of tempta- 
tion at home. 

But if, in some instances, parents continue unfaith- 
11* 



126 THE BLADE AND TEE EAR. 

ful, and our youth feel compelled to seek their recrea- 
tion abroad, I would warn them of its perils. There 
is so much akin to vice in many of our public amuse- 
ments, that I always think of the best of them with 
mingled emotions. They sometimes fasten them- 
selves on the young with a grasp, which no rational 
recreation can relax ; and they destroy, at last, all 
relish for pure domestic and social entertainments, 
even where these are furnished by their friends. 

Our young men are sometimes wholly blind to the 
seductions of social and public vice. Why do they 
so often wrap themselves in this Hercules' robe ? 
Primarily, because their love of excitement is not 
restrained and directed, as it should be, at the fireside. 
But if parents neglect to furnish attractive recreations 
in their families, then I say to the young man, pro- 
vide yourself with innocent enjoyments. 

And first of all, beware of any company which 
tempts you to put the cup to your lips. Regard 
every place where it sparkles and entices, as a vam- 
pire to your virtue. They who seduce you in this 
way, are like that stream in the East, which tears 
from the jungle trunk and branch, and hurls them 
into the black waters of the Dead Sea ; where they 
become themselves as dead and barren as those waters. 
Plant yourself early on the right side in this matter. 
Intemperance not only wastes a man's time, and eats 



RECREATIONS. 127 

out his substance, and often breaks the hearts of wife, 
mother, sister, and friend, but it musters around it 
the dread legion of every conceivable form of disease, 
pain, and death. 

The vice of gambling is one fostered very much by 
the spirit of the age. Adventure, speculation, great 
risks in the hope of great gains, this is our daily at- 
mosphere. Any thing to make profits ; " any thing," 
say many, " that is exciting." And that is the very 
element of the gambler ; he lives and breathes on 
thrilling scenes and incidents ; thousands upon thou- 
sands made and lost in an hour. Such are its fasci- 
nations that the young cannot be too earnestly warned 
against its avenues and environments. 

I have seen, in the old world, men at the gambling 
table, under the open eye of every one who chose to 
look on, and engaged by the glare of daylight in this 
polluting work. There sat the banker, like a huge 
spider, watching each chance on the board. And 
around were gathered a motley group of all nations, 
in one eager mass, thirsting for the silver and gold 
tli at clinked in their ear, or was heaped up in glitter- 
ing piles. And not men alone ; I saw woman there ; 
— I saw her step up to the dazzling board, and risk 
her tens and hundreds. I actually saw fathers and 
mothers " trying the luck" of their children. Could 
it have been so ? Yes, those young souls were then 



128 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

and there trained, by those set as their exemplars and 
mora] protectors, in the paths to hell. 

And we need not go to Europe to find this tempter. 
But if you know any such spot, let me utter a friend- 
ly voice against every attempt to lead you thither. 
Count not that you can indulge this practice in se- 
cret. Many eyes will soon be upon you. I do not 
allude to the public police ; though that may do its 
work before you are aware of its approach. If you 
dip your hand into these deadly doings, " Be sure 
your sin will find you out." There is the confession 
of companions, and there are the revelations of night- 
dreams ; the sin may leak out through the upbraid- 
ings of a guilty conscience ; it may write itself on 
your own fallen eye and blushing cheek. God sends 
many messengers to bring all secret sins to light, a 
letter, an instrument of gambling, a word let fall by 
chance ; and, if never before, the hour of death. 

I knew a young man, full of promise, who yielded 
to this seductive vice. First, he deserted my church. 
Where was he ? Gambling on the Sabbath ! He 
had a lovely wife ; and hour after hour she would sit 
and await his return, on to the depths of midnight ; 
and sometimes he would not come till the breaking 
of day. A sweet babe lay in the cradle, unconscious 
that her own dear father was taking hold of that fiery 
serpent. Ere long he left his work, lost his property, 



RECREATIONS. 129 

became a confirmed sot, and fled to the gold regions 
of California, if haply he might redeem his ruined 
fortunes. And now the mother and her little one 
turned away from their once pleasant home, and fled 
to her parents' fostering abode. Every day the sun 
looks down, in this land, on scenes like this, and on 
instruments preparing our young men for the same 
desolating habits and terrific results. 

What shall I say of this vice ? It is a system of 
prodigality, tending at last to poverty and rags. It 
maddens the soul, driving its victim on, with scorpion 
whip, into deeper and deeper guilt and woe. It 
breaks up all habits of industry, arid makes one an 
idler and a spendthrift. It is built up and sustained 
by constant deception ; it is itself a lie and a cheat. 
It is the consummation of theft and robbery ; it lays 
waste the domestic affections, wringing the heart of 
wife and mother, and making children worse than 
orphans. It deadens the sensibilities, blights the 
whole heart, and turns man at last into a monster and 
a fiend. 

If I imagined one, who reads these words, was 
treading on the rim of that fiery crater, I would en- 
treat him to stop where he is. If you are on the 
borders of that river of woe, and find your faith grow- 
ing weak, and your feet beginning to slide downward, 
seize the first bush at your side. Better sport in the 



130 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

rapids of Niagara, and think to stop when you come 
to the brink of its falls, than hesitate a moment now. 
Or, if you are only a looker on as yet, girt round 
with the temptation, but still innocent of the first 
offence, I say to you : 

"Play thou the man, and win thy crown; 
Nor halt on this enchanted ground." 

The call is loud and emphatic on all who love our 
country, to see well lest it be sunk in degeneracy and 
death, through the neglect, not only of a business 
morality, but of that morality, aye, and that religion 
too, so deeply implicated in our national recreations. 
Our institutions engender habits of excitement and 
excess ; they affect not only our affairs and avoca- 
tions, but our very amusements. So intense is the 
spirit of our people, that they either plunge into busi- 
ness with their whole soul and strength ; and often 
destroy or impair their health from over exertion ; or, 
if they pause for relaxation, it is sought in the same 
extravagant haste and ardor. Hence we need con- 
stant lessons of moderation, if in our work, not less in 
our pleasures. 

The example of some of the elders among us is 
fearful. At a watering-place in our country this very 
season (1864), you might see a $4,000 dress on a lady 
of fashion. And " what the women spend in dress," 



RECREATIONS. 131 

says an observer, " the men spend in c liquoring up,' in 
horses and in gambling. The ' hell ' here is very 
elegantly kept and patronized by ' gentlemen.' We 
heard of several young men, who, in the vernacular 
of the place, 4 fought the tiger ' so persistently as to 
be entirely 4 cleaned out,' and were obliged to borrow 
of the bank to get home. One person lost $6,000 in 
a single evening with the greatest nonchalance." 

Our young men put their trust in swift horses ; and 
the boys of this age catch the contagion of the day. 
We have a race of " fast boys," who can sport the 
cane, and puff the cigar, and, — sad to tell, — can roll 
from their lips the chilling oath as boldly as their 
seniors. We see in many of them already, the germs 
of a reckless adventure and a proneness to gaming. 
A writer of our time gives in evidence that he wit- 
nessed at Saratoga young lads at bowling and bil- 
liards, putting down their stakes as gravely as their 
fathers. When I see parents pressing their sons for- 
ward in so many ways, and encouraging them, or not 
staying them, in their irreverent and lawless courses, 
I feel that the home circle and the whole community 
too, must one day rue the result. 

This subject is interwoven with the complex fabric 
of social virtue, purity, and happiness. In our- zeal 
for labor, traffic, and accumulation, we should hear 
the wise exhortation of Milton. " Because the spirit 



132 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

of man cannot demean itself lively in this body with- 
out some repeating intermission of labor and serious 
things, it were happy for the commonwealth if our 
magistrates, as in those famous governments of old, 
would take into their care, not only the deciding of 
our contentious law cases, but the managing of our 
public sports and festival pastimes." 

The topic of this chapter is not too light to engage 
the attention of the legislator and Christian. Why 
should the friends of religion think recreation a kind 
of neutral ground, with which they have no special 
concern? So long as the best portion of the com- 
munity pass by this subject, as unworthy of their atten- 
tion, or as too delicate for allusion, vice will continue 
to decoy the young into her paths, under the guise 
of amusement. In visiting some of the hospitals at 
Washington, I was glad to see that the entertainment 
of the invalid soldier was not always forgotten. At 
the Campbell Hospital especially, I found a library 
which contained books to amuse as well as instruct. 
Sermons and tracts are good in their place ; but a sick 
man needs, at times, other mental diet ; and cheerful 
books are a rare tonic. Nor did I object to the pri- 
vate theatricals of the building ; although many stand 
aghast when they see this provided for the poor 
soldier. They had rather leave him to the temptation 
of the saloon, the billiard-room, and the gambling- 



RECREATIONS. 133 

table outside of the hospital, than indulge him in this 
harmless recreation within its walls. Let Christian 
people examine, weigh, decide, and act in this matter, 
and the fountains of pollution will be stopped. Pro- 
vide pure recreations for young and old, and the 
sinful ones will perish of themselves. 

We are morally bound, as to labor for our subsist- 
ence and that of our families, so to seek for ourselves 
and all for whom we are responsible, — and that, too, 
at every period of life, — the means of rest, exhilara- 
tion, and renewal, both of body and mind. Take, 
then, bodily exercise ; take it liberally ; choose appro- 
priate recreations ; and do it with deliberation, not as a 
thing you are to snatch occasionally, or pursue with 
doubts and misgivings ; but, — so it be innocent and 
invigorating, — accept it as a welcome relief, with a 
calm mind, a clear conscience, and with thanksgiving 
to God. Do not waver, and do not delay ; but 
believe, as you ought, that all true relaxations are not 
only consistent with, but determined by, religion. 
Whatever recuperates your mental energies, confirms 
or preserves your health, relumes the eye, and spreads 
a cheerful light on your path, and disposes you to 
duty, that is right before God ; and it is, or should be, 
approved and encouraged by all good men. 

12 



VII. 

FEMALE SOCIETY. 

A WORK on the relations and duties of young 
men would be incomplete, did it "contain no 
allusion to the society of the opposite sex. He who 
• created man in the beginning, formed him in his own 
likeness, fashioned for him this earth, provided it with 
all that can gratify the senses and call forth the soul ; 
and then gave him dominion over all he had made. 
But one thing was wanting. He saw that his nature 
would be but imperfectly developed, and his happiness 
far from complete, if he were now left alone. 

To pass by all subordinate considerations, for rea- 
sons of high social, intellectual, and moral importance, 
it was the dictate of both wisdom and goodness which 
led the Almighty to make a helpmeet for man. 

" Woman," as another well says, " educates man 
in that most essential, but most neglected part of his 
nature, the instincts. Good women seldom fail here. 
Full of intuitive perceptions themselves ; alive in 
thought, will, and aspiration, with its subtle and celes- 

(134) 



FEMALE SOCIETY. 135 

tializing presence, they fulfil a sacred ministry for 
man, by calling out and intensifying these great intui- 
tions, otherwise dead." 

Women are awakeners of man's deepest, truest, 
holiest nature. They are inspirers that breathe new- 
ness and freshness of soul through the cold, hard, 
flinty intellect, with its outward and set formalities. 
Manly mind is essentially aggressive ; it is a warlike, 
conquering power. Material objects constitute its 
main sphere. Not so with womanly mind. It is the 
corrective that acts silently, but mightily, on the 
manly intellect. And it is a far greater and nobler 
power, in relation to man, than it is in itself and in its 
own insulated action. The word " helpmeet " came 
from God ; and it is the best word to characterize the 
offices of womanly nature, both as respects mind and 
character. 

And this influence and aid are not confined to any 
one age or condition of life. By our very constitu- 
tion, we need female society at every period of life. 
In childhood, youth, manhood, old age, there is no 
line or point, where we can take our stand and say, 
although woman is sometimes of service to man, and 
her society is occasionally desirable, yet here she is 
not needed ; at this point of our life, we can dispense 
with her presence. 

I regard all institutions, whose plan and purpose is 



136 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

to exclude the opposite sex, such as those of Rome, — 
so far as its monasticism, its convents and nunneries, 
and its celibacy of the clergy are concerned, — as 
fruitful of evil, and that alone. It seems to me a 
questionable wisdom to establish schools for the sep- 
aration of the sexes. Professor Agassiz speaks of the 
importance of a high-toned and virtuous familiarity 
of the two sexes ; and says the health of the people is 
better in Europe than here, from the fact that, in the 
market-place, and in the field, in school, in church, 
in the street, at home, there is an ease and freedom 
of intercourse which expel every thing morbid and 
unhealthy from their common mode of life. He 
urges, for this reason, the " mingling of the two sexes 
in our schools and public places, as beneficial to both, 
physically, as well as morally and mentally." What 
we need is a more perfect vigilance and a higher 
purity, both in our parents and teachers, to prevent 
all improper communications ; and not to raise a high 
wall between those whom God never places apart. 
Why should we contravene the divine method which, 
so far from separating the sexes, brings them con- 
stantly together ; now in the dear circle of their early 
home, boy and girl, youth and maiden, and now in 
that holiest relation, whose seal bears the sacred 
motto : " Those whom God has joined together, let 
not man put asunder." 



FEMALE SOCIETY. 137 

Every young man is entitled to the privilege of 
female society for the sake of social enjoyment. He 
who shuns it from self-distrust and modesty, deserves 
commiseration. No effort should be spared to over- 
come this reluctance, and place one's self early and 
habitually in such circles as strengthen self-confidence, 
while they present a means of innocent enjoyment 
and recreation. He who yields to timidity, and re- 
mains secluded from female society, or silent when in 
it, not only debars himself of a present and pure 
happiness, but closes up a great avenue of future 
guileless gratifications. He becomes, it may be, the 
victim of an oppressive diffidence and an uncon- 
querable bashfulness. Nay, worse ; not a few, by 
pursuing this course, cherish a taste for scenes and 
indulgences fatal to their moral purity. 

This leads me to say, that female society is to be 
sought at every age as a source of personal improve- 
ment. For its influence on the manners, we can 
enter no school so valuable as the society of the oppo- 
site sex. Where the little girl is trained to delicacy 
and gentleness, she imparts the same graces to the 
boy. It has been well said, too, that, " Manners are 
morals." The Bible inculcates the civilities of life. 
"Be courteous," says the Apostle Paul; and none 
better illustrated this quality than he. When we 
consider the influence of courtesy, how it serves not 
12* 



138 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

only to embellish the outward man, but to adorn and 
dignify the social and moral character, we are sur- 
prised at its culpable neglect. Look on one who is 
self-possessed, graceful, and bland ; who shows in his 
youth that respect for age, which is as essential to the 
true gentleman as it is to the Christian ; who has that 
ease and affability which indicate the degree to which 
the mind has been softened and humanized by cul- 
ture; and you cannot but be impressed and won 
by it. 

I do not deny that there are excellent people who 
are ill at ease, ungainly in figure, and awkward in 
movement. And principle is always better than mere 
manner; a good heart is better than all forms. But, 
why not give both their rightful regard ? Why not 
cultivate a grace that pays respect, as well as wins it ? 
Who is not repelled by the coarse, the rude, and the 
violent ? A youth who is blustering, insolent, and 
reckless, offends us by his very presence. Guard 
against all affectation ; that is simply ridiculous. But 
a manner that shows a constant regard for the tastes 
and feelings of others, which expresses in the very 
countenance a love of what is elevated, humane, and 
benignant, — such a manner both attracts and com- 
mands us. It is like polish to the diamond; it 
heightens one's personal value, and lends to the entire 
man an inappreciable charm. 



FEMALE SOCIETY. 139 

But, now where is this quality most readily ac- 
quired? Seldom in the company of our own sex 
alone. It is the clear purpose of the Creator, to re- 
duce the asperities of man by the society of woman. 
It is her gift to inspire in us gentleness and refine- 
ment ; and, if we seek these qualities for ourselves, 
we shall find them usually with her. Avoid undue 
freedom, which leads, like unrestrained liberty in the 
State, to ultimate licentiousness. Treat woman never 
with rudeness, but always with studied respect, and 
you cannot fail of personal improvement. 

Said Napoleon the First, " I win nothing but bat- 
tles ; Josephine, by her goodness, wins all hearts." 
So long as he yielded to her potent sway, the lion in 
him was tempered by the lamb ; but from the very 
hour he madly divorced her from his side, his fortunes 
began to wane ; her wisdom and her love banished 
from him, his sun went down at noon. 

He who enters the society of the other sex with a 
desire to gain true good to himself, can hardly fail of 
his aim. He will shun weak and foolish conversation ; 
he will respect his associates too much to trifle with 
them unto silliness. While he scorns to use flattery, 

— remembering that God " abhors the lying tongue," 

— he will compliment their intelligence by talking to 
them as rational beings, and not treating them as dolls 
or as ciphers. 



140 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

Some persons meet woman only from necessity, or 
from chance or custom. They leave her presence as 
they came ; and ask, perhaps, to what purpose they 
should ever again seek it. Some do not honor her in 
their heart ; and, if they stop short of evil speech, yet 
they think evil of her sex. Others are too unsocial, 
or indolent, or selfish, to frequent her presence. But 
such persons are prodigals of one of life's noblest 
privileges. A writer on Chili informs us that, in that 
country, the daughter from ten years of age lives 
closely at home ; if she goes to school, the mother 
must accompany her, or she is sent in a close carriage. 
And what is the effect of this course on the young 
men ? They have little or no conversation with the 
young ladies ; and, instead of being seen in their ele- 
vating society, may be found, if not in worse places, 
resorting to the tailor's shop to discuss fashions, or the 
public parlor or promenade to display ultra fine gar- 
ments. And the young women take the partner for 
life selected by the mother ; and valued, not by his 
character or talents, but by the contents of his coffers. 

Let female society be sought as it should be, and 
we shall find it a constant incentive to whatever is 
pure, elevating, and honorable. We shall esteem it 
a privilege, and not a task, or a mere form and cus- 
tom, to extend to her all proper civilities. And that 
would not be all ; her presence would quicken in us a 



FEMALE SOCIETY. 141 

true self-sacrifice. And then, not the beautiful and 
attractive alone would receive our attentions ; but we 
should rejoice to notice and bring forward the modest, 
the unadorned, and those unsought by the selfish of 
our sex. 

I know no stronger guard against low pleasures and 
corrupting society and positive vices, than the habitual 
presence of those whom God made to be a shield to 
our good principles, and a tower of strength to our 
best sentiments. The natural penetration of woman 
prompts one, while with her, to be honest and truthful. 
He must be blind indeed, who thinks he can easily 
deceive her keen vision. Let him, who would carry 
impure thoughts to her society, know that she has a 
hidden strength, with which he will trifle on his peril. 

And it is never her frequent presence, but absence 
from her, and feeding the imagination with impure 
thoughts and desires, that most corrupts our youth. 

" So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity, 
That when a soul is found sincerely so, 
A thousand liveried angels lackey her, 
Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt ; 
And in clear dream and solemn vision, 
Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear; 
Till oft converse with heavenly habitants 
Begin to cast a beam on th' outward shape, 
The unpolluted temple of the mind, 
And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence, 
Till all be made immortal." 



142 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

But sad is the picture of her in whom this holy 
virtue is once dimmed. I know well the difficulty 
and delicacy of a reference to this topic. There are 
those who shrink even from an allusion to it. But I 
do not see how a moral teacher, feeling a true interest 
in the purity of our youth, can keep wholly and for- 
ever silent upon it. If, as is to be feared, the vice of 
licentiousness is often working in secret, and effectually 
countervailing all his exhortations to virtue and piety ; 
why should he not touch that leprous disease, and ask 
God to give him power to heal it ? 

Believing that the "social taint" existing in our 
army, as it always does in war, may yet spread widely 
over the whole community, I cannot keep silent on 
this subject. Young man, while you are yet innocent, 
let me build up a breakwater around you against this 
desolating wave, whelming our large cities, showing 
the capital of this country, as it has within this very 
year, to be a Sodom of debauchery ; and threatening, 
if rumor be true, to sweep over our own New Eng- 
land borders. Fathers and mothers at least, I am 
confident, will thank him who attempts the task, un- 
welcome and unpopular as it may be, of holding up 
the shield of moral purity before those dear to them 
as their life. 

Do you object to the plain language I use on this 
topic ? Remember that, " to the pure all things are 



FEMALE SOCIETY. 143 

pure ; " and one thing is certain, the Bible, from Gen- 
esis to Revelation, instead of shunning this subject, 
is full of pointed and. scathing denunciations of the 
debauchee. They were uttered amid the lightnings 
of Sinai, in the woe of the seventh commandment of 
the decalogue. Prophet and priest met this vice in 
tones of thunder. Jesus Christ pronounced it a sin 
to look upon another with impure thoughts. The 
dwelling of the strange woman is called " the house of 
death ;" and her guests are said to be "in the depths 
of hell." 

And why this terrific language ? Because no sin 
more effectually lays the moral nature in ruins than 
this. When joined, as it often, perhaps usually, is, 
with intemperance, the desolation it effects is com- 
plete. The foul seducer and the polluted adulterer 
brave, not only the warnings of conscience, but the 
express law of God, written in the Scriptures, written 
in the well being of society, and written in their own 
moral and physical frame. He who indulges in such 
practices, takes that path which leads, earlier or later, 
to the destruction of both body and soul. His vice 
palsies the limbs, and makes every bone, muscle, and 
nerve an avenue of pain to agony. It impairs every 
faculty of the mind, and benumbs every affection of 
the heart ; his thoughts, feelings, and desires be- 
come absorbed at last in one black passion. He 



144 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

loathes all virtuous society, and enjoys only the ob- 
scene jest, the vulgar oath, the nightly revel. He is 
in the tyrannous grasp of one»who, in the awful lan- 
guage of inspiration, hath " cast down many wounded ; 
yea, many strong men have been slain by her. Her 
house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers 
of death. None that go into it return again ; neither 
take they hold of the paths of life." 

And what shall we say of her who is partner in 
this guilt ? Once she was an innocent being, a lovely 
child, a beloved daughter, a cherished sister, an es- 
teemed companion and friend. But what is she now ? 
A fallen angel ; fallen, it may be, never to rise. A 
vicious man is a loathsome spectacle ; but a woman 
lost to all honor and purity, — oh, it is a sight to 
wring the stoutest heart ! When one traverses by 
night the streets of some of our larger cities, what a 
shudder comes over him, as he meets with a rude as- 
sault from these lost creatures. That wan, though 
bedizened, face ; that hollow and lurid eye ; those 
shouts of laughter, that startle the observer, amazed 
as he is at their brazen air ; — and hearing, as from 
some far-off home, that charmer word, " Innocence," 
— what a contrast they present ! Here is guilt in its 
lowest depths ; woman no more as in her country 
home, no more an angel of light, but a fiend of dark- 
ness, haunted and haunting, amid despair and death. 



FEMALE SOCIETY. 145 

And who has caused this melancholy fall ? Some 
being who once looked on the object of his lust, and 
set himself, fascinated by her beauty, her winning 
ways, her home-born purity, to accomplish her de- 
struction. By the indelicate allusion and innuendo, 
by the stealthy glance, by the subtle approach, by fair 
promises and alluring baits, step by step, he wrought 
her ruin. And if there is a hell outward or inward, 
a lake of material or moral fire, whose worm never 
dies, into that surging element he deserves to be 
plunged who has brought down from her pristine 
virtue a lovely woman ; blighting every hope that 
once clustered around her, and thrusting a viper's 
fang into the hearts of affectionate, but now agonized 
parents. 

And now what will keep the young man back from 
such God-defying deeds ? He has no effectual secu- 
rity except in resisting the beginnings of this vice. 

Let him never indulge in reading corrupt books. 
This is usually the first step in the downward career. 
The imagination is allowed to feast itself on these 
stolen viands. It is the bread of pollution, eaten in 
secret, which feeds and sustains the carnal appetites. 
Lascivious pictures, placed in shops and bar-rooms, or 
engraved for licentious books, have corrupted thou- 
sands upon thousands. Some who never speak a word 
on this subject, and who might be shocked at a lec- 

13 



146 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

ture upon it before others, will take such volumes to 
their chamber, and revel in their deadly sweets. If 
you allow yourself in this practice ; if you peruse 
works in private which you would blush to read be- 
fore a sister or a mother, then you are on the brink 
of that volcano which, — and you know not how soon, 
— may burst, and involve you in a moral death. 

Another source of pollution, is vile companions. 
There are those whose breath is a sirocco to one's in- 
nocence. They Avill use polished language to one 
who is refined ; and fill him with quotations from the 
sensualizing poet or novelist ; and thus destroy his pu- 
rity in an atmosphere of rank and foetid flowers. Or 
they employ the coarse jeer ; sneering, perhaps, at the 
idea of virtue in woman, maintaining that all are, in 
reality, corrupt ; citing, perhaps, some eminent man 
w T ho has fallen, and saying, the only difference is in 
concealing the vice. They will tell tales of others, 
relate their ov\*n experiences, or fabricate an experi- 
ence ; and so by degrees sap the very foundations of 
purity in the boy or youth. Shun such society as you 
would contact with the plague-stricken ; tear your- 
self from them, as you would from one who had 
seized you by the throat and demanded your purse. 
Such a man is demanding, not your money, not the 
fife of your body, but of your immortal soul. He is 
planting thoughts in your mind, which, if they never 



FEMALE SOCIETY . 147 

lead you into guilt, will haunt and torment you to 
your dying day. 

I counsel the young man, more than all, to culti- 
vate a strict purity of heart. The root of every 
overt act is in the secret thought. We have no safe- 
guard against moral evil except in an unpolluted im- 
agination. Our Saviour says explicitly, " Out of the 
heart proceed lusts, adulteries, and fornications." 
No one ever fell by these vices who did not begin by 
inviting thoughts of them to his bosom. Voluptuous 
desires are created by the fancying of corrupt scenes. 
Let forbidden persons, places, and indulgences riot in 
your chambers of imagery, and you have laid the 
train which a spark may explode. Ward off, there- 
fore, every impure thought. Repress each unhal- 
lowed desire, and you disarm the tempter ; you 
quench all his fiery darts. 

Clad in this panoply, with open countenance and 
conscious desert, one may enter the society of the 
opposite sex, not only for its passing enjoyments, but 
contemplating more intimate friendships, special affec- 
tions, and finally a permanent connection. 

Marriage, the appointment of God, is the seal, of 
man's earthly weal or woe. No event is to be com- 
pared with this, for its interest and its immeasurable 
results. Why are so many unhappy in this union, 
never indeed truly married ? Because they rush into 



148 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

its sacred temple, either deluded, or unsanctified by 
God and good principles. They sin in haste, and are 
left to repent at leisure. Custom, convenience, prox- 
imity, passion, vicious novels, silly companions, intoxi- 
cate the brain ; and that step is taken, without one 
serious thought, which death only can retrieve. 

Beyond question, it is well that marriage should 
ordinarily take place between all of both sexes. Celi- 
bacy is, in some cases, fruitful of evils. It tempts to 
debasing passions and pleasures ; it is often a spoiler 
of the temper ; and to not a few it is a costly sacri- 
fice of home-born happiness, and the dear joys of 
wedded life and parental satisfactions. 

Let marriage occur too, if it may be, and when 
friendly circumstances permit, in early manhood and 
womanhood. Franklin was wise in his counsel on 
this point. The temper and habits often grow hard 
and unyielding by delays ; while the young man is 
not seldom led by marriage into a regular and suc- 
cessful life. And a young lady, well educated and 
possessed of good sense, will conform cheerfully to the 
necessities of a day of small things. Procrastination 
may leave one all his life deprived of the immunities, 
enjoyments, and facilities to do good, placed in the 
hands of a wise and faithful family, by our divine 
Guardian and Guide. 

But, in addition to present high prices of living in 



FEMALE SOCIETY. 149 

general, the prevailing extravagance of the times is 
doing much, not only to prevent in our young men 
early marriage, but not seldom all thoughts of matri- 
mony. We are told that, comparing two recent 
years in Boston, there were nearly twenty per cent, 
fewer marriages in the latter than in the former. 
What occasioned this change ? Among the causes, 
I include the inability of many to form that connec- 
tion because of the increased expenditures of our 
young ladies. Silks, shawls, or cloaks, furs, jewelry 
of a thousand to two thousand dollars, worn in the 
streets, are as absolute a forbidding of the bans of 
marriage as the word of an autocratic father. I was 
glad to hear recently of a " Retrenchment Society" 
among the women of Washington ; and hope its 
example may be followed throughout the country ; 
and thus help to save our young men from the Scylla 
of a perpetual celibacy on the one side, and the 
Charybdis, on the other, of pecuniary ruin through 
the folly and extravagance of a fashionable wife. 

With a companion versed in a well-principled 
economy, it is often demonstrated that " two persons 
spend less than one." Many bachelors remain as 
they are, fearing the expense of married life, who yet 
spend enormous sums in their single life. Their 
yearly outfits of apparel are most extravagant. They 
live dearly at the cafe and restaurant, very dearly at 

13* 



150 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

the theatre ; and the Havana cigar prpves a fearful 
outlay. But a wife, especially if she have no female 
competitors, who stimulate her to extravagance, spends 
comparatively little. She reduces also the expenses 
of her husband in a thousand ways ; until it is proved 
by demonstration that two may spend less than one. 

The influence of a contemplated marriage is often 
salutary in its effect on the character and habits. It 
is a stimulus to industry and economy ; it is an in- 
spirer of pure sentiments and elevated affections ; and 
a shield against much that is low and tempting. All 
our anticipations are sources of happiness ; .none more 
so than those between two individuals pledged to the 
sacred tie of matrimony. 

But its preliminary arrangements require great 
caution and wisdom. Undue haste is sometimes fer- 
tile of evil. Governor Winthrop wrote to his son 
on his proposed engagement : " That which is to 
stand forever, should be a matter of long delibera- 
tion." Never trifle with the feelings of a lady ; few 
sins are of darker hue ; the sensibilities of this sex 
are too tender and too sacred for trivial deportment. 
What you mean, that say, that intimate, and nothing 
beyond it. Never leave an innocent heart to be 
steeped in the gall of a disappointment caused by your 
whim, your fickleness, or folly and guilt. 

Nothing is so important as true views of the nature 



FEMALE SOCIETY. 151 

and purposes of the marriage bond. The root of all 
mischief here is the lack of a true, spontaneous, sin- 
cere affection. Without this, no two hearts can be 
prepared for that union, where 

" each to the other is a dearer self, 

Supremely happy in the awakened power 
Of giving joy." 

Without this, the connection may be formed on 
mere convenience, or under the delusions of an im- 
agination stimulated by the vicious novels of the 
day. 

The deportment of two individuals, during engage- 
ment, is of no ordinary moment, from its decisive 
influence on their future character and happiness. 
The basis of most unhappy marriages, is laid in a 
studied concealment of every fault and foible of the 
parties from each other. Through a natural amia- 
bleness, they may strive to render themselves agree- 
able to the utmost, and cover up every infirmity of 
temper or disposition. Clad always in smiles, striving 
to pass for something beyond their intrinsic worth, 
they never become truly acquainted with one another 
until that fatal period, when the voice of stern and 
sad wisdom cries at the door, "too late, too late.'' 
My advice to persons when betrothed, is, above every 
thing on earth, be sure you study to show yourselves 



152 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

to each other just as you are. Regard it as a sin 
against the peace and the best hopes of your contem- 
plated connection, to practise the least conscious de- 
ception in this matter. Let all the " revelations " 
after marriage only be of new beauties of character, 
a delicacy, a generosity, an interior and thorough 
self-sacrifice, never until then perceived or antici- 
pated. " Woe worth the day," in which you shall 
utter to friends, or sigh over in secret, the mournful 
disclosures : "I did not dream of this ! Such selfish- 
ness, such a stubborn will, this raging temper ; — oh 
that I were as in months past ! " 

The interviews, between those affianced to each 
other should be respectful and rational ; they should 
accord with the noble aim of a true marriage. Let 
this not be a season of mere giddiness and frivolous 
conversation. Seek to heighten the virtues, elevate 
the tastes, and improve the intellectual powers and 
attainments of one who is to stand so near your own 
being. Let there be a moral alliance and a spiritual 
union ; heart knit to heart in their purest and most 
sacred recesses ; and then you can never be united 
except to reap, instead of disappointment and perhaps 
disgust, new satisfactions, and a more entire absorp- 
tion in each other every year you live. 

May two individuals, when once betrothed, be ever 
honorably and properly separated from each other ? 



FEMALE SOCIETY. 153 

Not for slight reasons ; engagement should be de- 
layed until assurance is given of such mutual fitness 
of temper, taste, and character as will terminate in a 
happy consummation. But if evidence be afforded 
of a lady's positive unfitness to render you happy, 
and hence faithful and true in the bond, if marriage 
must be, in all human judgment, a source of infelicity 
to yourself and to her, better part during this prelim- 
inary acquaintance than be unequally yoked together, 
fastened by a chain of mutual regrets and miseries 
through life. But the cases are very rare in which 
any merely external considerations should be allowed 
to rupture an engagement. Huber was affianced to a 
Swiss lady, and he afterward became blind. Against 
her father's remonstrances, she refused other offers of 
great promise, clung to him, married him, lived forty 
years with him, shared his fame and joy ; and never 
repented of her decision. 

To speak now of the qualifications of a companion 
for life. First among these must be ranked, that one 
should have a distinct aim and purpose in life. To 
her who is a lover of pleasure, fashion, and ease, and 
who is giddy and heartless where duty is concerned, 
be not you a bosom friend. Observe what compan- 
ions she selects and is most intimate with ; for as 
they are, so essentially is she, or so she will become. 
Having finished her school studies, has she manifestly 



154 THE BLADE AND TEE EAR. 

commenced a course of self-education, resolved to 
cultivate and improve every power and faculty of her 
immortal nature ? Not. abjuring enjoyment and rec- 
reation, does she return from such scenes to pursue 
with fresh zest the high calls of duty ? Is she in 
earnest, feeling responsible as a child of God for the 
talents he has given her ? 

A prime requisite is a disposition to strengthen and 
cultivate the powers of the mind. There is no better 
safeguard than this against the long catalogue of 
errors and weaknesses to which this sex is exposed. 
With a love of good books, one is fortified against that 
frivolous and trifling spirit whose supreme care is for 
dress, fashion, and folly. A taste for history, biogra- 
phy, and works that improve the intellect, protects a 
young woman from the invasions of romance and 
nonsense. She is in danger of that besetting sin, a love 
of admiration, — foreign altogether from the natural 
and proper desire of being esteemed and gaining the 
approbation of the good. She may be liable to lose 
all simplicity of character ; and become a victim to 
affectation, moral dishonesty, and treason to her own 
soul. To guard against this sin, her mind needs the 
garrison of sound knowledge and ample stores of 
science and literature ; or at least a taste for their ac- 
quisition. And whatever be her liabilities, from the 
temperament of her sex, to moodishness, caprice, timid- 



FEMALE SOCIETY. 155 

ity, or waywardness, no better defence can be found 
than the devotion of every spare hour to such writ- 
ings as invigorate the intellect, while they, at the same 
time, cherish the purest and most elevated sentiments. 

We may require good sense ; judgment to discern 
the useful, the right, and the true ; a fair understand- 
ing ; a perception of fitness and proprieties ; a power 
to compare, weigh, and decide between things, essen- 
tially, or even partially, dissimilar. Is she, in one 
word, practical ? 

Let there be a Jove of home, its scenes, joys, and 
pursuits. She who is quiet and domestic, and who 
treats parents, brothers, and sisters with consideration 
and kindness, is sure to make a true wife. 

Seek good temper. " To be always beloved," says 
Lady Montague, " one must be always agreeable ; and 
there is no such thins; as beino; agreeable without a 
thorough good-humor and a natural sweetness of tem- 
per, enlivened by cheerfulness." This charm may 
lose something of its brightness under the trials and 
crosses of life. But if it be wanting in the outset ; 
if the young woman be peevish and irascible, or stub- 
born, moody, and capricious, woe to him who is to 
share her fortunes amid the chances and changes of 
this eventful world. 

She should be strictly conscientious, self-sacrificing, 
and love to go about doing good. We may desire 



156 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

the best possible education, not only an acquaintance 
with history and philosophy, but the highest orna- 
mental instruction. But after all, " accomplishments 
without virtues are," as has been said, u like poison- 
ous weeds ; while accomplishments with virtues are 
like flowers bound on the brow of beauty." We 
need, in the stern work of real life, not only things 
graceful, but things useful. Lady, in the old Saxon 
tongue, signifies, " One who gives away bread." 
That is the true lady, whose face may be lighted 
up with smiles ; but we want to .see also, gleaming 
through them all, kind looks, kind wishes, kind 
deeds. 

Other qualities are by no means to be disparaged ; 
good health, the prop of all usefulness, comfort, and 
true godliness ; domestic capabilities, so that her 
household may be " clothed with wool and flax," and 
she may give them, like the Great Sustainer on high, 
each his portion in due season. Order, — Heaven's 
first law, the basis of a well-arranged and prosperous 
household ; economy, without which, the thrift of the 
husband and father may vanish daily like the dew. 
Good taste, — making every thing beautiful around 
the fireside, even as the Great Presiding Power above 
hath garnished the heavens, and made earth, sun, and 
stars, all teachers of order and harmony ; conversa- 
tion, the power to give expression by the tongue to 



FEMALE SOCIETY. 157 

woman's deep affections, and to beguile the slow 
hours of an unvarying home-life. All these things 
should be sought, and prized, and 7 joyfully accepted 
in her who is to be brought into a fellowship, that 
should be heart of our own hearts, and life of our 
lives. 

One thing more, and every requisition will have 
its culmination and crown. And that is a sincere, 
living interest in that portion which is to endure, 
when all other treasures and dowries have passed into 
the silent dust. We may admire a fair person. God, 
who hath given every external endowment and grace, 
be thanked for them. But, sum them all up, and 
what are they, without a deep, underlying foundation 
of earnest piety ? " Favor is deceitful ; and beauty is 
vain ; but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall 
be prized." Yes, in the bloom of her girlhood days, 
she has the celestial fire beaming from her animated 
eye. In her maiden promise, she is radiant with 
attractions whose light will shine on and on, when 
the stars will rise and set no more. And, as she 
stands at the marriage altar, her riches will send a 
thrill of anticipation through that waiting heart, to 
which earth and sense, gold and diamonds, and all 
bridal gifts are but as the evanescent flash of the fall- 
ing meteor. And, when she is an established wife. 

14 



158 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

the heart of her husband will safely trust in her. 
And, having spent years of varied joy and sorrow in 
a dear communioff below, they will ascend at last, not 
divided, — oh, surely not, — but only for a day sep- 
arated, to that spirit union, of which their earthly 
bond was but a faint and vanishing type. 



VIII. 

BOOKS AND HEADING. 

IN MANY countries, and some of them Christian 
countries, the question now is, Canst thou read ? 
Hast thou been taught those mystic symbols, by 
which thought is poured into the human mind, 
through the printed page? The multitude live and 
die, in such countries, ignorant even of the very 
alphabet. 

But here, in this land of civil and religious freedom, 
and where the modest school-house stands hard by 
the sanctuary, the grand inquiry is, How readest 
thou? Trained from a child in the knowledge of 
letters, what use hast thou made of this precious privi- 
lege ? Dost thou read wisely and well ? 

There are not wanting, it is true, even here, in- 
stances of those who, possessing the ability to read, 
do not exercise it, for long periods, at all. It is said 
there are men, not far distant from our metropolis, so 
engrossed with their secular occupations, that some- 
times, through the week-days of a whole season they 

(159) 



160 THE'' BLADE AND THE EAR. 

do not read a single page of a book, and some of them 
not so much as a newspaper. I do not refer to the 
poor laborer, who must toil for the very necessaries 
of life, till the body bears down and almost blots out 
the mind. I allude to those in whom the insane 
passion for accumulating property, consumes all desire 
for knowledge, all interest in the culture of those 
high powers and faculties given by their divine Au- 
thor, not to be obliterated, but to be unfolded in His 
likeness. 

But I turn from this sad spectacle, and regard 
those not obnoxious to the charge of doing absolutely 
nothing to increase their mental furniture by reading. 
We do all, it may be presumed, read something, 
either much or little, and either for good or evil, 
every day of our lives. So augmented is the power 
of the press^ that our land is almost literally flooded 
with its uninterrupted issues. Compare with the 
present day the period before the invention of print- 
ing. In the* middle ages a manuscript could not be 
hired for a short time, without paying, in some cases, 
an enormous price for its use. Contrast that era 
when it took five years to copy the Bible, with this, 
in which Bibles are printed almost with the speed of 
thought. Compare that period when it cost a small 
fortune to buy this volume, with our day, in which 
five copies" of the Bible may be purchased for the 



BOOKS AND READING. 161 

day's wages of a good workman ; and when for a few 
dollars in gold one can fill a shelf, if not with sub- 
stantial books, yet with printed pamphlets, such as 
they are. 

And now compute the influence of this mighty 
mass of productions. What we habitually read gives 
a hue to our thoughts and feelings, and to our daily 
conversation. It affects, more or less determinately, 
our entire character, intellectual, moral, and religious. 
Without disparaging other influences, — such as those 
of society, home, friendship, observation, and experi- 
ence, — it is safe to say that, on this community at 
least, an inappreciable effect is produced by the great 
current of the popular reading. " A good book," 
says Milton, "is the precious life-blood of a master 
spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life 
beyond life." It stands sometimes, like the angel 
in the Apocalypse, one foot on the land, and one foot 
on the sea, and bears a sway to be felt when time is 
no more. 

One's reading is, usually, a fair index of his charac- 
ter. Observe, in almost any house you visit, the 
books which lie customarily on the centre-table ; or 
note what are taken by preference from the public or 
circulating library ; and you may judge, in no small 
degree, not only the intellectual tastes and the general 
intelligence of the family, but also, — and what is of 

14* 



162 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

far deeper moment, — you may pronounce on the 
moral attainments and the spiritual advancement of 
most of the household. " A man is known," it is said, 
" by the company he keeps." It is equally true that 
a man's character may be, to a great extent, ascer- 
tained by knowing what books he reads. A bad book 
cannot be read without making one worse. Bad 
books are like ardent spirits ; both intoxicate, the one 
the mind, the other the body ; and the thirst for each 
increases by being indulged, and is never satisfied. 
Both ruin, the one the intellect, the other the health ; 
and both, the soul. Precious, on the other hand, and 
priceless, are the blessings that good books scatter in 
our daily path. They bring us into the society of 
the noblest spirits, and carry us into the fairest regions 
of the earth ; and then 



" Add the gleam, 

The light that never was on sea or land, 
The consecration of the poet's dream." 

What is our great key to the past ? We may learn 
something, it is true, of a nation's history from its 
present character, from its institutions, and from its 
monuments and its traditions. But little compared 
with what we can gain from the faithfully written 
page. What should we now know, for example, of 
the Egypt of the past, if left to its present inhabitants, 



BOOKS AND READING. 163 

or to its pyramids alone, for that knowledge ? How 
little we can learn of the fortunes of ancient Greece 
from the Acropolis or the Parthenon, as they now 
stand ; or from the race which now occupies her soil. 
Her commerce and agriculture, her arts of peace and 
war, were imposing ; and her architecture and statu- 
ary were grand and impressive. But her title-deed 
to everlasting fame, is found in the recorded elo- 
quence of her orators, the splendid effusions of her 
poets, and the deep wisdom of her sages and philoso- 
phers. What can the ruins of Rome, — expressive 
as they are, — tell us of her past fortunes, compared 
with the rich streams of her literature ? In each in- 
stance, a Thucydides or an iEschylus, a Livy, Taci- 
tus, or Horace, open to us treasures of interpretation 
on this point, before which all other guides are com- 
paratively dumb. 

44 Not to know what was before you were, is," as 
has been truly said, " to be always a child.' 1 And it 
is equally true that he never becomes a complete 
man, who learns nothing of the former days, from 
reading. " Books," says a good writer, " are the 
crystalline founts, which hold in eternal ice the im- 
perishable gems of the past." 

But not for their historical value alone, are books 
important ; they are essential to store the mind with 
science, and to open for it the deep mines of a general 



164 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

literature. " Reading," says Lord Bacon, " maketh 
a full man." And how else can the mind be filled 
with good things ? Much may be acquired by con- 
versation ; yet little compared with what we can read. 
Few men are in themselves fountains of wisdom and 
knowledge ; fewer still, have the gift of imparting 
freely and fully to others, by the tongue. So that 
speech cannot furnish us what will satiate our mental 
thirst. Observation lends its aid in building up the 
mind, and in deepening its resources. Yet, after all, 
its field is narrow. If we depend, for all we ever 
learn, on the sight of our own eyes, and the hearing 
of our own ears, our attainments will be poor and 
mean. Self-culture and the pursuit of knowledge 
under difficulties, have been long and loudly extolled; 
and they deserve praise. Count Rumford would 
walk, it is said, from his home in Woburn, Massachu- 
setts, to Cambridge, ten long miles, to hear a lecture 
on Natural Philosophy ; a science in which he after- 
wards became so distinguished by his pen. And he 
exhibited, in so doing, a spectacle, in one respect, not 
eclipsed in the palmiest hour of his subsequent scien- 
tific and inventive fame. 

Yet, brighter still is his star in the intellectual 
firmament, who, with equal native endowments and 
kindred zeal, is permitted to intermeddle, from his 
earliest days, with good books ; and who, while he 



BOOKS AND READING. 165 

drinks copiously at these headsprings of knowledge, 
blends with these acquisitions a complete mastery of 
every thing lie learns. Only read books aright, and 
you will become convinced that the pen is stronger 
and more beautiful than unassisted nature ; more 
penetrating, and far more abiding, than the helps of 
speech. The pen, you will become assured, when 
freighted with learning, skill, power, and grace, and 
when allied with its predestined coadjutor, the press, 
is the diamond, with which, by a God-appointed 
method, the heavenly lines of truth are to be graven, 
deep and imperishably, on the human mind. 

But, though books can so bless our race, not all 
reading is good. It is a talent, not only hidden by 
some in a napkin, but abused and wasted by multi- 
tudes. It is one whose true uses most of us little 
consider. We all, as I have said, read ; and yet what 
do we read? and hoiv, and ivliy do we read? Weigh 
the amount of a single year, and you will see it is no 
vain thing. A newspaper, — one of our largest 
sheets, — contains a moderately sized volume of mat- 
ter. If, then, we read throughout, only a newspaper, 
each passing day, we have the amount of three hun- 
dred and sixty-five volumes in the year ! A very 
considerable library is thus read annually in these 
flying sheets. And with many of us the sad truth is, 
that we read little beyond these flying sheets. They 



166 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

meet us at every part of the day ; by the fireside, in 
the counting-room, at the work-bench, in the office, 
and in the street, — Pelion upon Ossa, — these insin- 
uating missiles are heaped in our way. Not even the 
Sabbath is exempted from their all-engrossing con- 
trol ; some, it is to be feared, read little else than 
these evanescent productions, on the consecrated 
day. 

Now I do not, for one moment, object to the diffu- 
sion of these all-searching journals. On the contrary, 
I rejoice in their existence. The newspaper is with 
us a most efficient power. Daniel Webster ranked it 
with free schools, as an educator. One of our late 
journals well says, " It has already taken the place, in 
a measure, of the schoolmaster, the pulpit, the uni- 
versity, the lecturer, the author ; — and is probably 
destined to usurp a still larger place in the thoughts 
and affections, and the conversation of men, and exert 
a more powerful influence over their opinions and 
conduct." These journals gratify an innocent love 
of news ; they spread much salutary intelligence 
throughout the community ; they are the fast friends 
of popular rights, and even essential, it would seem, 
both to civil and religious freedom. 

But, I still say, let them not, Napoleon-like, grasp 
at universal dominion. " Ten minutes a day, is all I 
ordinarily give to newspapers," said one of the noblest 



BOOKS AND READING. 167 

sons of Massachusetts, recently deceased. Clinging 
rigidly to that rule, he found ample time, while at the 
head of the Metropolis of New-England, as its mayor, 
— and there always a working man, — while occupy- 
ing a seat in the councils of the nation, and at the 
head of the University over which he presided with 
such signal ability for sixteen years, — not only to 
read solid works, but to write at each stage of his 
active career, and continue the practice, up to the 
last of a life extending over nearly a century, of 
writing, volume upon volume, which, by their vigor- 
ous style and weight of thought, no less than their 
eminently Christian power, have done much to en- 
lighten and bless his generation. 

The case I have quoted may seem to shut us up 
within too narrow limits in this matter. Yet one 
cannot but contrast this frugal devotion of ten minutes 
a day to these passing visitors, with the course of 
those who read nothing else, from week to week and 
year to year, but newspapers. And we must feel 
that a part of this time is clearly misspent. 

Nor let us forget the danger that the details of vice 
and crime in the newspaper, by familiarizing the 
mind with their hideous features, may blunt the edge 
©f its finer sensibilities. It may thus grow careless of 
moral distinctions, if not incapable of perceiving them. 
Easily one may thus lose the taste for what is simply 



168 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

good, true, and beautiful ; and feel an insatiable crav- 
ing for what will produce a strong sensation, even 
though it lead to a positive sympathy with the wrong- 
doer. The rehearsal of all the details of a crime, 
sometimes educates the reader to its imitation. And 
where the mind is slightly disordered, the recital of a 
suicide has been sufficient to provoke the unhappy 
victim to take his own life. 

But some go a step further than the newspaper ; 
they read the periodical magazines and reviews of the 
day. And these are good in their sphere. As finger- 
guides, pointing us to something better than them- 
selves, or as condiments to a more substantial dish, let 
them hold their place. Yet he whose leisure is all 
devoted to these passing messengers, falls far short 
of the true intellectual stature of a man. As a help- 
ing-staff, the periodical does well ; but as a crutch, 
bearing one's entire mental weight, such reading en- 
feebles and dwarfs our whole inner nature. Robert 
Hall so feared this effect of reviews, that he read them 
with great caution and reluctance. They should not 
be set aside however, but well selected, and kept sub- 
ordinate to a higher power. 

Yes, our higher nature demands the nutriment of 
books ; and solid, well-tried, standard books should* 
constitute the staple of our reading. We read, in the 
main, first, for excitement and amusement ; secondlv, 



BOOKS AND READING. 169 

for profit ; thirdly, to trace out causes and their con- 
sequences. Many enjoy only books addressed to the 
emotions and passions. They remind one of the poet 
Gray, who said he could conceive no greater luxury 
than to " lie on a sofa all day and read eternally 
new novels of Marivaux and Crebillon." The de- 
structive influence of this form of indulgence, carried 
to its extreme, needs no delineation and no formal 
caution. 

I do not say we should never read for recreation. 
But I do say, that the habit of reading only for re- 
creation is fatal to all manliness and to all womanli- 
ness of character. Set that person down as frivolous 
and inane, in moral as well as spiritual possessions, 
whose reading rises ordinarily no higher than the 
novel. Fiction has its place, beyond question. I 
would no more condemn it altogether, than I would 
denounce all poetry because an Ovid or a Byron had 
written polluted and polluting verses. Indeed, the 
Bible itself abounds in parables and other imaginary 
descriptions of man and human life. And if God 
uses these instruments as vehicles of instruction, why 
cannot we ? But still, fiction has but a narrow place 
in admissible reading. Alcohol is sometimes good as 
a medicine ; though it is often perilous even when so 
used. Woe to him who suffers the stimulus of fiction 
to become a craving of his daily appetite. My coun- 

15 



170 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

sel would be, if you find it at any moment growing 
imperative, clamorous, and essential to you, then lay 
it aside altogether ; " Touch not, taste not, handle 
not ; " treat it as a mental and moral enemy. 

I warn the young man against what may be well 
called the "Satanic literature" of the day. The 
cause and the effect of reading pernicious books, is a 
moral scepticism. It is said that Byron ridiculed the 
idea of any one being seriously injured by reading a 
book. And he wrote accordingly, with a pen dipped 
in the gall of misanthropy and a reckless infidelity. 
His occasional beauties, — the effusions of genius, — 
are, for this reason, all the more dangerous. No one 
can peruse impure books without vitiating his taste, 
and losing all interest at last in whatever is written to 
elevate and improve. Such works lower the tone of 
the moral sensibilities ; and by allowing the profligate 
and artful to succeed in their stratagems, they awaken 
a sympathy with fashionable guilt, and often render 
plain-dressed virtue a cheap, undesirable thing. They 
diminish our natural dread of crime and sin ; and thus 
poison our purest sentiments. Filling the mind with 
false notions, extravagant pictures, and alluring ex- 
pectations, they make real life dull and tame. Creat- 
ing first an imaginary world, they make us shed tears 
over illusive heroes and heroines : while we become 
dead to all the actual sufferings of our fellow-beings. 



BOOKS AND READING. 171 

In this way they not seldom so fill the mind with 
spectral existences as to blend disappointment, lassi- 
tude, and misery in one's cup. Beware, therefore, I 
would say to every young man who cares at all for 
his faith or his virtue, — beware, as of a viper's touch, 
of what you know to be a book of this class. 

Much of the literature of the day is addressed to 
the lower sentiments of our nature ; and it thus im- 
pairs the supremacy of the higher. The number is 
increasing who read only to be amused or excited ; 
not to gain useful knowledge, or understand better 
the great lesson of a good life. It is sad to know that 
so many now read little beside works of fiction. The 
records of nearly every public library which contains 
the great on-flowing stream of these productions, show 
that a large majority of the books called for are nov- 
els. And not a few of these exert a baleful influence 
on the unformed character. 

The temptation to corrupt reading is usually strong- 
est at the period when the education of the school- 
room is about closing. Our schools, from the lowest 
grade -upward, are, as a whole, adapted to furnish 
stimulants to the acquisition of useful knowledge, and 
to mental activity and strength. The test of their 
final utility, however, is the time when our youth 
leave these schools. If the mind be now awakened 
to a manly independence, and start on a course of 



172 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

vigorous self-culture, all will be well. But if, on the 
other hand, it sinks into a state of inaction, indiffer- 
ent to its own needs, and to all the highest ends and 
aims of life, then woe to the man. For few, very 
few ever rouse themselves in mid-life to a new intel- 
lectual taste, and to an untried application of their 
time and powers to that culture, for which the Crea- 
tor formed and endowed them. 

For these reasons I am more anxious for the turn 
a youth takes, in this regard, when he leaves the 
school-room, than at any other part of his life. Does 
he keep up his interest in books ? When he comes in 
from his store or shop, and is waiting perhaps for his 
meal, does he use his spare minutes in reading some 
good volume ? Is he seen in the evening punctual at 
the same pleasing and profitable pursuit ? 

Look at this subject on any scale, large or small, 
and you will see its importance. The progress of a 
nation always keeps pace with the culture and force 
of its mind. For example, England, France, and 
America are now three of the mightiest powers on 
earth ; and they are each distinguished for their in- 
tellectual advancement, for their schools and colleges, 
and the diffusion of knowledge among the people. 
Why did Xenophon and his ten thousand men hold 
out, as they did, against the myriads of Persia ? Be- 
cause the Greeks had mind, intellectual cultivation, 



BOOKS AND READING. 173 

and power, while the barbaric Persians had nothing 
to oppose to these but brute force. It is surprising 
what powers of endurance are often imparted by 
mental education. The officers of Napoleon bore 
the horrors of his midwinter retreat from Moscow, 
because they had been trained in science, far better 
than his ignorant soldiers. The power of the will, 
when increased as it may be by study and reflection, 
is amazing. D£. Kane, whose constitution had ap- 
parently been greatly impaired by sickness and expos- 
ures before his Arctic Expeditions, could never have 
endured the severities of a latitude where the ther- 
mometer fell to sixty degrees below zero, had he not 
been a man of rare intellectual energy ; and scientific 
as well as brave, and brave because he was scientific. 
The tension of his mind proved, when the excitement 
of those scenes was over, to have been too great for 
his frame. But while there, it was mainly his mental 
force that carried him through it. 

Good books are invaluable as a moral guard to a 
young man. The culture of a taste for such reading, 
keeps one quietly at home, and prevents a thirst for 
exciting recreations and debasing pleasures. It makes 
him scorn whatever is low, coarse, and vulgar. It 
prevents that weary and restless temper which drives 
so many to the saloon,' if not the gambling table, 
to while away their leisure hours. Once form the 
15 * 



174 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

habit of domestic reading, and you will, at any 
time, prefer an interesting book, to frequenting the 
haunts of vice. 

It is indispensable to the well-being of our commu- 
nity, that our young men should, at no period, inter- 
mit their pursuit of good knowledge. Be the pressure 
of their avocations never so great , there is alwavs a 
spare hour to be found for the culture of the mind. 
Roger Sherman was a diligent reader when a poor 
shoemaker's apprentice. Some of our first poets have 
stolen the hours they gave to the muses from a labori- 
ous occupation. Charles Sprague, the cashier of a 
bank, and Bryant, the editor, in our own country, 
and Hugh Miller, a stonemason, and Ferguson, the 
shepherd, abroad, have shown the power of industry 
and energy to make time under all circumstances. 
I would encourage habits of application to business, 
and a purpose, too, of gain and accumulation. But 
after all, there is one thing better than wealth ; and 
that is knowledge. I fear we have too many among 
us like the cannie Scotchman, who, when compli- 
mented as a countryman of Burns, replied, " True, 
you have produced no Burns, but you have produced 
one greater than all Scotland. Dr. Franklin taught 
the way to make money." But was that the best 
thing done by Franklin ? No ; I honor him far more 
than for this, when told that he denied himself all 



BOOKS AND READING. 175 

pernicious amusements, morning slumbers, and many 
a good meal, for the sake of reading a favorite book. 
It was not his shrewdness in making or in saving 
money ; it was his love of science, of thought, and 
of books, which enabled him to " snatch the lightning 
from the heavens, and the sceptre from the hand of 
the tyrant." 

To those who plead the want of time to read, I 
would say, be as frugal of your hours as you are of 
your dollars, and you can create time in the busiest 
day. Horace Greeley, the editor of a newspaper 
which has reached an almost incredible circulation, 
tells us, that, when a boy, he would " go reading, to 
the wood-pile ; reading, to the garden ; reading, to the 
neighbors." His father was poor, and needed his 
services through the day ; and it was a mighty strug- 
gle with him to get Horace to bed. " I would take 
a pine knot," he says, "put it on the back-log, pile 
my books around me, and lie down and read all 
through the long winter evenings ; silent, motionless, 
and dead to the world around me, alive only to the 
world to which I was transported by my book." 

In this country talent has a fair field to rise by 
culture from the humblest walks of life, and to attain 
the highest distinction of which it is capable. " Why," 
inquired a bystander of a certain carpenter, who was 
bestowing great labor in planing and smoothing a seat 



176 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

for the bench in a court-room, " why do you spend so 
much time on that seat ? " " I do it," was the reply, 
" to make it easy for myself.*' And he kept his 
word ; for, by industry, perseverance, and self-educa- 
tion, he rose, step by step, until he actually did after- 
wards sit as judge on that very bench he had planed 
as a carpenter. 

Let not the mechanic confine his reading to one 
class of subjects. He ought, it is true, to learn all 
he can from books, as well as practice, of the arts of 
mechanism ; and to become perfect in his own special 
department. Yet, while I would encourage the use- 
ful in every walk of life, I would not have the beauti- 
ful neglected. Let the apprentice take up occasion- 
ally a work on the fine arts ; and so elevate his ideal 
of practical excellence. Our country has claims on 
its young men in this direction. It is a reproach to 
any one to know nothing of the achievements in this 
walk by our own American artists. Why should not 
the young man, not only aspire to distinction in his 
particular sphere, but glance occasionally at other 
branches of art ? One of the fine arts, architecture, 
is immediately connected with some of the mechanic 
pursuits ; and I see no reason for the neglect of 
painting and sculpture by the laborer or trader. In 
my own city and its vicinity, there are those who, 
stimulated by reading of others, have risen from 



BOOKS AND READING. 177 

mechanic pursuits, to power and excellence in the 
works of art. Honor to that artist, whose modesty is 
as remarkable as his merit, who, without any teacher 
but his own God-derived genius, commenced the task 
of making himself, as he has, one of the most prom- 
ising, if not already prominent, of our landscape 
painters. Forget not either that young man, now a 
resident of our city, whose skill as a sculptor, shows 
what may be accomplished in his noble art by one 
who, when a common carpenter, began his practice 
by wood-sculptures, and now shows us how the dumb 
marble can speak, at the summons of art, industry, 
and an unblenching perseverance. 

I know a young merchant of cultivated mind, who 
paid a large sum from his early-acquired means, for a 
painting by Raphael ; and he is none the poorer for 
that sacrifice, I believe, now. Instead of wasting 
one's extra means in foolish expenditures on his per- 
son, how much nobler it would be to bestow a few 
hundreds on a bust by Crawford, Powers, or some 
other of our native artists. It would not only elevate 
the taste of our young men, but cheer those gifted 
spirits to be thus appreciated at home. Better far 
adorn your room with a fine painting or statue, than 
expend your superfluous earnings on lusts that in- 
flame, and appetites that degrade, the immortal 
mind. 



178 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

No example of the course recommended stands out 
at this moment more prominently in America, than 
that of the distinguished merchant and banker, 
George Peabody. Not only has he cultivated his 
own mind by generous reading, but in his opulence 
remembered his early New England home, by be- 
stowing handsome donations upon it for a public 
library and other means of mental culture. While 
residing in England, he bestowed the princely sum of 
$300,000, for the establishment of a Literary Institute 
in the city of Baltimore. In all his benefactions, 
his motives have stood out with a noble purity and 
breadth. The donation to his native town was in- 
tended, as he expressed it, " for the promotion of 
knowledge and morality among them." And the gift 
to the Baltimore Institute was designed, he says, to 
make it " in all contingencies and conditions, the true 
friend of our inestimable Union, of the salutary influ- 
ences of free government, and liberty regulated by 
law." And this man, so prospered of God, using his 
large means for individual benefits, and to cement the 
bonds between two great and kindred nations, was, in 
his boyhood, at the age of sixteen, an orphan, without 
property, position, or influential friends. But, by his 
own indomitable purpose and his unremitted exer- 
tions, joined to a spotless character, at the age of 
nineteen he had risen to be partner hi a house, in 



BOOKS AND READING. 179 

which, for nearly thirty years, he continued a career 
of commercial success. Every young man has the 
same field opened to himself; and, I say to all I can 
reach, like the individual in question, without the 
advantages of birth, inheritance, place, or favor, you 
may, though not amassing his fortune, yet, if true to 
yourself and true to man and to God, enter the same 
path, and press on toward the same high, patriotic, 
honorable, and honored position. 

I am glad the winter months allow the young men 
in many of our cities, by the early closing of the 
stores, to use a part of each evening in reading. I 
trust these precious hours, instead of being spent in 
questionable places and circles, will be sacredly de- 
voted to the perusal of good books. God has spread 
before our young men a country rich in its natural 
productions, both upon and beneath its soil. Why 
should they forego the pleasure of learning from 
geology the history of its mountains, valleys, and 
lakes ; of its mines and other vast treasures of interior 
wealth ? Why never walk through the splendidly- 
furnished halls of our chemical palace ? Why live 
and die ignorant of our multifarious array of fruits, 
flowers, and birds ? How can they fail to lift up an 
inquiring eye to the great handiwork of Him, who 
not only flames before us in the glory of mid-day, but 
in the stilly night comes forth and sows the empyrean 



180 THE BLADE A±\D THE EAR. 

with stars ? Read history ; it will aid both your men- 
tal and moral improvement, by showing how nations, 
as well as individuals, are guided by the hand of Provi- 
dence ; and that intelligence, virtue, and piety alone 
can conduct to true prosperity. Read biography : 

"Lives of good men all remind us 
We can make our lives sublime, 
And, departing, leave behind us 
Footprints on the sands of time. 

''Footprints that perhaps another, 
Sailing o'er life's solemn main, 
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, 
Seeing, shall take heart again." 

Moral science 'should by no means be neglected. 
By unfolding to us the springs of human action, it 
helps us on in the winding path of self-knowledge ; 
and thus instructs us where and how to employ our 
powers and faculties to the highest advantage. In- 
tellectual philosophy renders the same service, reveal- 
ing to us the deep places of the mind, cherishing a 
habit of discrimination, opening up a knowledge of 
our fellow men, and expanding our higher nature. 
Physiology is all important ; a knowledge of the laws 
of the physical frame is essential to that vigor of body 
which lies at the basis of all usefulness as well as 
happiness. No young person who desires health, 



BOOKS AND REAPING. 181 

purity, and virtue, can live ignorant of its principles. 
Read good poetry ; it quickens our deepest and best 
sensibilities ; and it lifts us to that ideal world, which 
we must first enter, before we can be elevated to 
moral and spiritual excellence. Natural history and 
physical science are valuable, not only for the knowl- 
edge thev give us of the outward world, but for 
kindling the heart to an adoration of the God of 
nature. Travels are useful, by opening to us the 
world as it now is, and inciting us to an interest in 
the well-being of every race on the globe. Read, I 
would say, in fine, to acquire valuable information, 
to cherish good principles and pure affections, to pre- 
pare yourself for usefulness in this life, and for an 
advanced position with the Father and the Son, and 
the honored dead, in the life which is to come. 

In availing yourselves of the literary privileges of 
the age, you will do well to heed the suggestion 
of Lord Bacon : " Some books are to be tasted, others 
to be chewed, and some few to be digested." When 
the mind is weary, read a little for amusement ; but 
let it be only a little, a prelibation. Reserve your 
hearty draughts for those invigorating waters that 
nourish the intellectual life and moral health. 

When we come to the selection of books, it is wise 
to ask the advice of some competent judge. Never 
read a book because it is new, and to say you have 

16 



182 THE BLADE AXD THE EAR. 

read it ; the old, rather, the tested and approved, are 
to be chosen. Some of us read altogether too many 
books ; we follow the press with railroad speed ; and 
thus nothing has time to settle down into the mind, 
and nourish its growth and strength. The illustrious 
Hungarian exile, when imprisoned for his liberal sen- 
timents, was forbidden all except certain tolerated 
books ; and of these he could have but three in the 
English language. And what was the effect of this 
restriction ? Shut up to those three volumes, Kos- 
suth became master of a new language ; a language 
which, in the providence of God, he subsequently em- 
ployed, with a thrilling eloquence, to further the civil 
redemption of his native land. 

The advice in regard to reading only the best se- 
lected works, leads me to say, read slowly. We 
sometimes rush over pages of valuable matter, be- 
cause, at a glance, they seem to be dull ; and we leap 
along to see how the story, if it be a story, is to end. 
We do every thing in this age in a hurry ; we de- 
mand not only " fast " horses, but fast writers, fast 
preachers, and fast lecturers. Said a noted seaman's 
preacher in one of our large cities, " I work in a 
hurry, I sleep in a hurry, and, if I ever die, I expect 
to die in a hurry." This is the history of much of 
the present reading ; and I am aware it has some good 
authorities in its favor. Dr. Johnson recommended 



BOOKS AND READING. 183 

this method of running over hooks, and ridiculed the 
idea of reading any hook in course. He said he 
never read any hook through hut the Bihle. But he 
must have a Johnsonian intellect who does not, by 
trying this experiment, hreak down under if, like an 
overloaded beast of burden. To digest either a meal 
or a book, we must address ourselves to it with delib- 
eration. As it now is, we bolt volume upon volume 
with the swiftness of the ostrich. Digestion is of 
course out of the question ; and we are languishing 
with a mental dyspepsia. Fast reading engenders 
fast writing ; and we have authors who rush their 
works through the press, fleet as the winds ; and many 
of their books are as innutricious as the east wind. 

I love, — in the whirl of our modern mode of read- 
ing, or attempting to read the multitudinous produc- 
tions of the press, — to recur to that remarkable race, 
the Jews, who, for long centuries, had but a single 
book. And yet out of that one book, what stores of 
knowledge, and wisdom, and life, national, moral, in- 
tellectual, and spiritual, did they draw ! 

But to the perusal of every volume we take up, we 
must carry a habit of constant meditation. Books 
perform but a part, and that the lowest part of their 
office, when they fail to stir us to mental activity. 
" Read," — to cite once more our leading authority 
in this case, — " not to believe and take for granted, 



184 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and con- 
sider/' For one hour we read, we should spend two, 
at least, in premeditation and reflection. Especially 
ought this to be our practice when we are engaged 
in reading abstract works, whether physical, moral, or 
intellectual in their character. Said Sheridan, " In- 
stead of always reading, think, think on every subject : 
there are only a few leading ideas ; and these w T e may 
excogitate for ourselves." 

Consider that what we carry to a book is always quite 
as important as what we receive from it. We may 
strike the keys of the best instrument, from earliest 
morn to latest night, but unless there be music in our 
soul, it can produce no harmony for us. While, to an 
earnest, inquiring, self-poised mind, u a good book is 
the plectrum by which our else silent lyres are struck." 
Master your reading, and let it never master you. 
Then it will serve you with an ever-increasing fidelity. 
Only read books aright, and they will charge your mind 
with the true electric fire. Take them up as among your 
best friends ; and every volume you peruse will join the 
great company of joyous servitors who will w T ait around 
your immortal intellect. Then, too, your daily charac- 
ter will bear the signatures of the great minds you 
commune with in secret. And, as the years pass on, 
you will w T alk in the light of an ever-enlarging multi- 
tude of w ell-chosen, silent, but never-erring guides. 



IX. 

THE BIBLE-WHY TO BE READ. 

AT a time when so much is written, the tendency 
of which is to lead one to lay aside the Bible, 
or to think lightly of its contents, when criticism is 
rife over its pages, and many, if not plunged into 
utter unbelief, are left in a state of biblical scepticism, 
I am anxious to hold the minds of our young men to a 
full, fair and just estimate of the contents of this book. 
I ask them, before contemning it on account of the 
disparaging remarks of others, to give it a thorough 
perusal ; and to be sure they apprehend both its let- 
ter and its spirit. 

The primary object of the Bible is to show the 
relation between God and man ; by the redemption 
in Christianity, to reconcile the earth-child to his 
heavenly Father ; and to lead him to live with his 
fellow man as with a brother and a friend. 

But, confining our view of this volume for the 
present, to its intellectual aspects, I would show, that, 
in this age of universal and varied reading, no book 

16* (185) 



186 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

deserves so much attention as this from the advocate 
of mental progress and the lover of good literature. 
As a patron of pure taste and a high literary culture, 
I should place the Scriptures in the van of all other 
books. It is a pioneer for the various professions. 
A distinguished member of the bar writes, at the 
head of a course of legal studies, " Make vourself 
familiar with the Bible." Who is the scholar that 
thinks to stand high on the roll of academic fame, 
and yet neglect or disparage this book ? We say to 
all such, not only is it the ark of the doctrine of the 
one true God ; and not only is it the best code of 
morals to be found in past ages or among modern sys- 
tems of ethics ; but, as a compendium of literature, 
— in its classic histories, its full-freighted biographies, 
its masterly eloquence, and its more than Castalian 
poetry, — it stands unsurpassed, unapproached. 

To read wisely and well, we must begin with the 
Bible. " I can truly affirm," says Coleridge, " that 
my studies have been profitable and availing to me, 
only so far as I have endeavored to use all my other 
knowledge as a glass, enabling me to receive more 
light, in a wider field of vision, from the word of 
God." 

To the student of history, this volume is fraught 
with instruction. See what it has done for the na- 
tions and races of mankind. What was the ultimate 



THE BIBLE— WHY TO BE READ. 187 

fate of those who never saw its light ? Assyria, as 
lias been recently proved, made illustrious advance- 
ment in science and art. Egypt was renowned for 
her learning, and Babylon for her wealth and mag- 
nificence. Persia stood of old at the very summit of 
human grandeur and glory. Greece was, at one time, 
the light of the world in literature, arts, and arms ; 
and Rome succeeded her in a transcendent empire of 
outward dominion, and in the imperial sway of her 
intellect. Yet every one of these mighty powers, with 
their matchless energies and their gigantic achieve- 
ments, went down, in a material and mental, no less 
than a moral regard, to the sepulchre of nations. 
And why ? Because they had not the Bible. 

To this book the world owes, not only its redemp- 
tion from sin, as a personal offence against God and 
his law, but what is less frequently considered, all true 
and enduring emancipation from the savage state and 
the gross darkness of barbarism. Why are we now 
living in the full blaze of civilization, refinement, and 
social and mental culture ? Because we have the 
Bible. It contains the strongest element of advance- 
ment for the race, and at the same time it is the 
great conservator of humanity. Take away this grand 
brake, and the wheels of social progress would some- 
times rush down to degradation, corruption, and death. 

Contrast with the nations just named, those which 



188 THE BLADE AND THENAR. 

have risen to a high and enduring prosperity. Take 
the history of our own progenitors. We are de- 
scended from the ancient Britons, a race of abso- 
lute pagans. Barbarous themselves, their priests, the 
Druids, worshipped the oak and the mistletoe, and 
sacrificed human beings to their gods. Why are we 
not doing the same thing to-day ? Why are we not 
bowing down to idols, Juggernaut, or the Grand 
Lama, or the fetich of Africa ? The Anglo-Saxons, 
sons of barbarians, stand at the summit of modern 
civilization. They are refined in manners, advanced 
in literature, science, and the arts, worshippers of the 
true and living God ; and, however deficient in some 
respects, they are still the vanguard of light, freedom, 
and all sacred, social, and national progress. And 
why ? We owe it, fundamentally, to the Bible. 

Not only is this book precious to the poor and un- 
learned ; not only is it the counsellor and confidence 
of the great middle class of society, both spiritually 
and mentally speaking ; but the scholar and the sage, 
the intellectual monarchs of the race, bow to its au- 
thority. It has encountered the scorn of a Lucian, 
the mystic philosophy of a Porphyry, the heartless 
scepticism of a Hume, the^lore of a Gibbon, the 
sneers of a Voltaire, the rude weapons of a Paine, 
and the subtle, many-sided neology of modern Ger- 
many. But none of these things have moved it. 



THE BIBLE— WHY TO BE READ. 189 

Nay, parallel with these attempts at its subjugation, 
and triumphant over them all, have advanced the 
noble works of such commanding intellects as New- 
ton, Chalmers, Robert Hall, Bowditch, Channing, 
testifying that, to them, the Bible bore the stamp of a 
special revelation and the seal of the Eternal God. 

The oldest reliable history is that given by Moses : 
" And God said, Let there be light, and there was 
light." And on and down, for four thousand years, 
the sacred volume follows the fortunes of God's 
chosen people. And, incidentally, it gives us, at the 
same time, light on the contemporary nations of 
heathendom. See what it has done for science. 
True, it does not unfold to us the mysteries of 
geology, astronomy, or chemistry. And yet it does 
train the mind for its loftiest flights and its broadesl 
explorations. "I have always found," said a patron 
of the National Institute at Washington, " in my sci- 
entific studies, that, -when I could get the Bible to 
say any thing on the subject, it afforded me a firm 
platform to stand upon, and another round in the lad- 
der, by which I could safely ascend." It throws its 
beams into the temples of science and literature, no 
less than those of religion ; and so prepares the way 
for man's advancement in philosophy, metaphysics, 
and the natural sciences, no less than in the realm of 
ethics ; and, as it saves the soul, it exalts the intellect. 



190 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

If you admire the power of reasoning, turn to the 
Epistles of Paul. If you would go to Butler or to 
Pascal for an exhibition of logical ability, pass not by 
the masterly arguments and the all-convincing con- 
clusions of this mighty Apostle. Do you admire the 
fascinating tale ? No book has more thrilling narra- 
tives than the Bible. Read the story of Joseph with 
a colcf heart if you can ; or begin the romantic his- 
tory of Daniel, and lay it down in the middle, un- 
finished. Elihu Burritt not only devoured a little 
parish library in his boyhood ; but, " I was drawn to 
the Bible at the age of sixteen," he says, " by its 
beautiful narratives." If you ask for an exquisite 
home-scene, turn to the tale of Ruth ; if pathos is 
your choice, read the affecting story of David and 
Absalom. 

And what shall I say of the poetic element of the 
Scriptures ? It is well known that Bunyan, that 
prose poet, whose work is as immortal as our lan- 
guage, read no book but the Bible ; that was the in- 
spiration of his genius. How many have been lifted 
up to the gate of heaven by the strains of Job and 
Isaiah. It is not possible to find any volume of 
pastoral and descriptive poetry to compare with the 
Psalms or the writings of Solomon. Every great poet 
has drank at this one fountain. Milton could not 
have written Paradise Lost, had he not been touched 



THE BIBLE— WHY TO BE READ. 191 

by the celestial fire of the Bible. Spencer, through 
this book, reached his exquisite beauty and tender- 
ness. Cowper owed his melting and devout strains to 
the same inspiration. Southey confessed his obliga- 
tions for what is highest and purest in his verses, " to 
the lineaments of the Gospel books." Lamartine, 
another prose poet, says that his passion for Eastern 
scenery was awakened by his gifted mother teaching 
him to read the glowing imagery of the Scriptures. 
Addison, Young, Thomson, Burns, all drew copi- 
ously from this head-spring of the imagination. And 
of Byron, skeptic as he was, it is related that, of the 
four volumes which always lay on his table, one was 
the Bible. 

But why specify particular authors ? What is all 
modern literature, but one great monument of the 
power and glory of this book ? Lorenzo and Leo, 
digging in Pompeii in the middle ages, found the 
lamps in which the old classic fires had once burned ; 
but there was no oil in them ; and they were fit onjy 
for the shelf of the antiquary. But, at the same 
period, Luther, Zwingle, and Melancthon found in the 
crypt of the convent, that Gospel which the papist 
had buried there. And this was a fountain of light, 
from which the old classic lamps were filled. And 
now Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates found interpreters 
wiser than their text ; and all the mighty spirits of 



192 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

modern Europe caught the fire from the same gospel 
lio-ht, and have blazed on to this hour. 

The style of the Scriptures is such as to insure the 
perpetuity of their influence. It is marked by its 
extreme simplicity. " The voice of the Lord is on 
the sea ; the God of glory thundereth ; the voice of 
the Lord shaketh the wilderness ; the Lord sitteth 
upon the water-torrent ; yea, the Lord sitteth King 
forever." How simple are these sentences ! And 
yet they move on with a regal majesty and power. 

The Bible is filled with rhetorical beauties ; but 
they are always incidental, casual, and unsought. It 
describes the works of creation with a grandeur, and 
at the same time a minuteness and fidelity, such as 
one finds in no other book whatever. So does it 
grow in the grass and the flowers and the trees, that 
it seems a thing of life ; it rides on the clouds, flows 
in the river, leaps with the cascade, and sports with 
the fishes. It roams with the cattle on a thousand 
hills, and knows every beast of the field and forest ; 
it darts with the insect, and sails through the azure 
deep, with the birds. At its coming the seas clap 
their hands ; the little hills rejoice ; the plains stretch 
themselves out in wider and more gladsome propor- 
tions ; and the valleys sing for joy. Much as we 
may have been pleased by Grecian tales, by the 
Dryads of their woodlands, and the Oreads of their 



THE BIBLE— WHY TO BE READ. 193 

mountains, and the Naiads of their streams, we feel 
the immeasurable superiority of the movements of 
the omnipresent Jehovah, the one Supreme and only 
living God, as he sweeps through the universe ; and, 
by the Bible, calls on every thing that hath breath to 
praise the Lord ; or, as through the heaven-touched 
lips of Job, He bids us contemplate that " path 
which no fowl knoweth, which the vulture's eye hath 
not seen, nor the fierce lion passed by ; " or, by the 
prophet, tells us, that of old, " God came from 
Teman ; his glory covered the heavens ; his brightness 
was as the light ; before him went the pestilence ; and 
burning coals went forth at his feet. He stood and 
measured the earth ; the everlasting mountains were 
scattered ; the perpetual hills did bow at his pres- 
ence." 

Sir William Jones, a writer at home in all the 
varied languages and literatures of the East, says on 
this point, " I have regularly and attentively read the 
Holy Scriptures ; and am of opinion that this volume, 
independently of its divine origin, contains more sub- 
limity and beauty, more important history, and finer 
strains of poetry and eloquence, than can be collected 
from all other books, in whatever language they may 
have been composed." 

This is the reason for the Bible being, as it is, the 
most suggestive of books. Look into any library 
17 



194 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

whatever, and you will find, not only its sermons, but 
some of the richest of its other works, essays, moral 
treatises, historical, and even scientific productions 
can be traced to passages in this volume. Johnson, 
Burke, Wordsworth, Wilson, and a host of other 
men of fire- winged genius, possessed of a wealth of 
learning or a weight of logic, dipped their pens, first 
of all things, in this sacred fountain. 

We are not surprised at this diversified influence, 
when we remark the variety of its contents. Sweep- 
ing over a compass of sixteen hundred years, it em- 
braces sixty-six distinct books compressed in one ; and 
yet, with the exception that they treat in general of 
the grand themes, God and man, they are as varie- 
gated in their style and their topics as any separate 
books you can take up. History, biography, the 
drama, prose and poetry, narrative and prophecy, di- 
dactic and argumentative, they are a Cyclopaedia of 
themselves. Within the same covers we have the 
simple yet massive words of Moses, the sublime 
strains of Job, the lyric lines of David, the laconic 
wisdom of Solomon, the majesty of Isaiah, the mys- 
tic imaginings of Ezekiel, the ingenuous and truth- 
stamped narratives of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and 
John, the learned words and the " logic on fire," as 
it has been well described, of Paul. 

And this is not all ; the Bible is adapted to every 



THE BIBLE — WHY TO BE READ. 195 

possible variety of taste, temperament, culture, and 
condition. It has strong reasoning for the intellec- 
tual ; it takes the calm and contemplative to the well- 
balanced James, and the affectionate to the loving 
and beloved John. The pensive may read the tender 
lamentations and the funereal strains of Jeremiah. 
Let the sanguine commune with the graphic and 
creative Joel ; and the plain and practical may go to 
the wise Ecclesiastes or the outspoken Peter. Tliey 
who like brilliant apophthegms, should study the book 
of Proverbs ; and the lover of pastoral and quiet delin- 
eations may dwell with the sweet singer of Israel, or 
the richly endowed Amos and Hosea. If you would 
take the wings of imagination, and leap from earth to 
heaven, or wander through eternity, then open the 
Revelation ; and pour over and fill yourself with the 
glory of the New Jerusalem ; and listen to the seven 
thunders ; and gaze on the pearly gates and the golden 
streets of the heavenly city. 

The Bible is admirably suited to the multiplex ca- 
pacities and avocations of mankind. Written, under 
God, by the pens of the sage and the shepherd, the 
sovereign and the laborer, the physician and the fish- 
erman, — it touches chords to which every station in 
life utters its particular response. In the words of a 
gifted German, " The sacred books stand so happily 
combined together, that, out of the most diverse ele- 



196 THE BLADE AND THE EAR, 

ments, the feeling of a whole still rises before us. 
They are complete enough to satisfy, fragmentary 
enough to excite, barbarous enough to arouse, tender 
enough to appease, and for how many other contra- 
dictory merits might not these books, this one book, 
be praised." 

Pass again out into history. The early fathers of 
the church, who shaped its destinies, and its morals 
too, made this book their study and delight. The 
learned Origen, the golden-mouthed Chrysostom, and 
the profound Augustine gathered from it the noble 
principles on which their elevating works now rest. 
But that is not all ; martyrs have died folding this 
volume to their breasts ; Jerome of Prague, Huss, 
Cranmer, and Rogers sent up from the stake their 
attestations to its divinity and power. Indeed, if we 
ask, How many stand up in ecclesiastical history on 
its behalf? as another has well said, "The martyrs of 
ten centuries would come, from burning fagots, from 
bloody blocks, from damp, cold prisons, from the tor- 
turing Inquisition, a mighty company with bloodless 
lips, uttering the testimony of ages in its favor." 

And if the church thus pays its tribute to this, as 
" the book of books," so does the State. No true 
patriot can neglect or underestimate this volume. It 
lies at the basis of our free institutions ; it was the 
very statute book of the Puritans ; our Pilgrim 



THE BIBLE — WHY TO BE READ. 197 

fathers conveyed it reverently to these shores in 
the Mayflower ; and the sages of the Revolution 
bound it to their hearts. It was accepted as the com- 
mon heritage of our national Union ; and, although 
not incorporated formally in our political organiza- 
tions, its letter was reverenced, and its spirit recog- 
nized, diffused, and more or less influential, from shore 
to shore, and from the sunny gulf of the South, to the 
^najestic lake waters of the iiorth. 

And in our own day, a throng of good and great 
men have venerated this book, and imbibed its spirit. 
John Quincy Adams, through a long life, made it his 
daily study ; a neighbor of his once told me, that, 
amid the most active portions of life, he always trans- 
lated a few verses in his Hebrew Bible, the first thing 
in the morning. He read it when a boy ; he clung 
to it through his manhood; and to his last day, he 
owed to it, not only his rare veneration for the 
Deity, but his love for freedom and humanity, and 
all his adamantine virtues. Jackson, Harrison, and 
Clay were each students of the Bible. They lived 
gratefully by its light ; and they died in the hope of 
its glory. " Though I walk through the dark valley 
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil ; " these 
were among the last words that fell on the ear of the 
dying Webster. Sir Walter Scott, a few days be- 
fore his death, asked his son-in-law to read to him. 
17* 



198 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

" What book," inquired Mr. Lockhart, u would you 
like ? " " Can you ask ? " said Sir Walter, " there 
is but one." Verily, there is but one book to be read 
in our last hours. 

For its practical effects, to aid a young man in find- 
ing the best methods and means of success in his secu- 
lar pursuits, where can he so well go as to the Bible ? 
Indeed, I would distinctly say, that as a guide in 
one's worldly affairs, no. better book than this can ba 
found. It is a maxim of business that " Honesty is 
the best policy." But what will lay the foundation 
of strict honesty, deep and impregnable, in a young 
man's character ? Nothing so surely as drawing the 
rule of his life from the Scriptures. Take, for in- 
stance, the book of Proverbs ; you cannot find in any 
other code so complete a set of principles for honora- 
ble and successful trade as in its first three chapters. 
Other exemplars, if not teachers, allow shades of dis- 
honesty ; they justify one in straining the truth to 
make a good bargain. Conscience, it is thought, if 
not said, must yield a little, especially when a man is 
determined to make haste in becoming rich. The 
principles laid down in the Bible are not only clear 
and broad, but they are immutable. It demands of 
every one to do, not " pretty nearly right," but ex- 
actly so. It shows that while there may be tempo- 
rary advantages in occasionally doing wrong, the 



THE BIBLE— WHY TO BE READ. 199 

frown of the Almighty will rest on him who know- 
ingly violates strict rectitude. And the higher he 
rises for a time, the more fearful and fatal must be his 
ultimate fall. 

The most prosperous community on the globe is 
this our New England. But how did our fathers 
commence the establishment of their colonies ? By a 
distinct recognition of that great Bible truth, " Seek 
first the kingdom of God, and all things else shall be 
added unto you." " Never forget," said Higginson 
in 1663, " our New England is originally a planta- 
tion of religion, and not a plantation of trade. If 
any man make religion as twelve, and the world as 
thirteen, he is not a sincere Christian, nor yet a true 
New England man." 

The Bible is a prime educator in the school of 
manliness. Inside of every merchant, mechanic, 
manufacturer, artist, and artisan, — who will not 
admit this? — there is, or there ought to be, a man. 
And no agency can so build one up in true manhood 
as this book. I know it is often thought that it is fit 
only for women, for the closet, the sick, the clergy, 
and for persons in a state of bodily or mental weak- 
ness. But look into this matter, and you will find it 
is not so. Parsons, Webster, Adams, were devout 
and constant students of the Bible ; and yet they 
were any thing but weak men. 



200 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

What young man ever succeeds the less in procur- 
ing a good situation for being a reader of this book ? 
Said an individual, as he rested by his forge in Indi- 
ana, " When I first left home to seek a place for my- 
self, my mother gave me a Bible. I went from shop 
to shop, but all were fall. Tired out and disheart- 
ened, I sat down in a blacksmith's shop, and pulled 
out my mother's gift, and commenced reading. Soon 
the owner came up and asked, " What book are you 
reading?" "The Bible," was my reply. "You 
may go to work," said the man ; " I will furnish you 
employment." A young man can carry with him no 
such letter of recommendation as a well-read Bible. 

The great excellence of this book is its practical 
character. It touches human nature at that very 
point where it most needs assistance. We have helps 
for the intellect in the school-room, in the toil and 
strife of business, in legislation and politics, in collision 
with our fellow men, and in common conversation. 
The Bible goes beyond all these. It is a book of 
laws, to show the absolute right and wrong ; it is a 
detector, not only of intellectual, but moral errors. 
By presenting the vast themes of God, immortality, 
and its inconceivable retributions of glory or shame, 
it superadds those deep things which enter into the 
springs of our every thought, word, and act. It is 
not simply, as has been sarcastically said, " The hang- 



THE BIBLE— WHY TO BE READ. 201 

man's whip to keep the world in order." It is a light, 
shining on the soul's dark places ; and reflecting bright 
rays on the path of our daily life. This world has 
had enough of speculations, theories, and creeds, food 
for the curious intellect and the wrangling theolo- 
gian. We want, and must have now, if never before, 
a religion which shall take the world as it is ; go into 
the manufactory, and amid the clang of hammers and 
the scream of mighty machinery, shall say, " Lo, God 
is here," — here to guide this employer, and make 
him a friend to the higher no less than the lower na- 
ture of these working men. Here, too, we want the 
operative to bring his religion w r ith him, and be no 
eye-servant, but faithful and true to his employer. 
We want in the counting-room, in the work-shop, 
on the railway, a sense of the need of better motives 
than earth alone can supply ; we want that inward 
life which looks, not only to Christ on the cross, but 
to Christ the son of the carpenter, the Word made 
flesh, — religion carried out in the very midst of life's 
toils and tumults, its struggles and tears, its hopes and 
fears, its unutterable cravings for that light which ra- 
diates through eternity. 

Says Grant Thorburn, " When I left Scotland, in 
my twenty-second year, the amount of my education 
was, to read the Bible and write my own name. The 
first day I spent in America, on opening a case of 



202 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

books, on the top lay a small pocket Bible, placed 
there by my pious father. I opened the book ; it was 
at the third chapter of Proverbs. ' My son,' were 
the words which met my eyes, 4 this is the way, walk 
ye in it.' It is near sixty years since that morning ; 
but at every crossroad, when not knowing whether 
to turn to the right hand or to the left, on referring 
to this chapter, I have found written over the path of 
truth, honesty, and duty, ' This is the way, walk ye 
in it.' " 

So does the Bible meet the exact case of the young 
man. Beset as he is, within and without, by temp- 
tations, it tells him he must live, not by bread alone, 
but by the word of God. It teaches him that, until 
he has gospel principles, until there is a root in him- 
self, taken from the nursery of Jesus Christ, he can- 
not bear the best fruits of which he is capable. It 
tells him, and makes him feel, that while hypocrisy 
and cant are odious to every true heart, it is honorable 
to be everywhere and always sincerely religious ; that 
behind the counter, at the work-bench, in the ma- 
chine shop, and in all social life, it is unmanly to be 
ashamed of the noblest powers and faculties within 
him ; it is unmanly to be proud of dress, wealth, sta- 
tion, or family, but ashamed of our relation to the 
Infinite Father and to the all-loving, all-saving Re- 
deemer. 



THE BIBLE — WHY TO BE READ. 203 

The Bible is the book of books inasmuch as- it 
shows the futility of all attempts to enjoy life by shut- 
ting out heavenly things from our thought and care. 
Take, as an illustration of this, the book of Ecclesi- 
astes. It brings before us a man who tries all the 
world's recipes for happiness. He runs the whole 
round, now of science, and now of sensuality ; he is 
by turns sceptic, fatalist, epicurean, stoic, materialist, 
and in the end sits down with the miserable testi- 
mony, " Vanity of vanities, all is vanity and vexation 
of spirit." And what is this but the experience of 
every man since the days of Solomon ? Ask the 
millionaire. " You must be a happy man," said one 
to Rothschild, the banker, possessing his tens of 
millions. u Happy, me happy ? " was the reply ; 
u What, happy when, just as you are going to dine, 
you have, as I have had, a letter placed in your 
hands, saying, ' If you do not send me five hundred 
dollars I will blow your brains out ? ' 

You may go to the statesman, who has filled the 
highest office in his country, and ask him whether his 
cup has been full ? As he stands by at the inaugura- 
tion of his successor, his shaded brow will tell you 
nay. Ask the warrior, coming from the battle-field, 
his garments rolled in blood, Did the shouts of vic- 
tory satiate his thirst for applause ? Bid any of the 
godless sons of literary fame, Frederic of Prussia, 



204 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

Byron, or Volney, give in their testimony ; and they 
affirm, in one gloomy voice : 

" We've drank every cup of joy, heard every tramp 
Of fame ; drank early, deeply drank, drank draughts 
That common millions might have quenched ; — then died 
Of thirst, because there was no more to drink." 

But never a human being went to the Bible, went to 
Jesus Christ, in humble trust, who did not find his 
words true : " Whosoever drink eth of this water," 
— that is, of any, or all, merely earthly fountains, — 
" shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the 
water I will give him, shall never thirst ; for it shall 
be in him a well of water springing up into ever- 
lasting life." They who hunger for pleasure, gain, 
fame, and power, and have no aspirations above 
these, die at last of moral inanition ; while they who 
hunger for righteousness, and for the bread of eternal 
life, offered in the written word, are filled. 

But, prized as the sacred book may be by the aged 
and those in the meridian of life, the young man 
may perhaps say within himself, " What is it to 
me ? " I heard but the other day of one who spoke 
thus : "I had a Bible once presented to me, but it 
was when I was a young man ; I felt I did not need 
it then ; and I gave it away." Give away the Bible ? 
And a young man too ? Why, his was the very 



THE BIBLE— WHY TO BE READ. 205 

age, when, of all others, the Bible is most needed. 
In the first place, it is full of promises and encourage- 
ments for that period of life. Its language is explicit ; 
hear its voice, as it speaks through Wisdom, " They 
that seek me early shall find me ; " and Jesus Christ 
was emphatically the friend and helper of youth. 

What does a young man most need, as he starts on 
the great course of life ? Passing by, for a moment, 
the demand for a religious faith, he needs first a per- 
fect standard ; and that he can find in no other book 
whatever. Religion, in its practical aspect, as it is 
capable of being fully lived out, you can nowhere see 
except in the teachings and the actual life of Jesus 
Christ. His command is, " Be ye perfect ; " and up 
to that standard he himself comes. Secondly, the 
young man must have a knowledge of human nature ; 
to deal with men he must understand them. And 
where can he find such disclosures of the height and 
depth, the fold within fold, of man's complex motives, 
as are seen in the long line of Scripture characters ? 
Look at Joseph, a pattern young man ; Moses, wise 
in his early days ; David, illustrious while yet a shep- 
herd youth ; Daniel, bold before kings in the name of 
Jehovah ; and how many others, the story of whose 
course and qualities will enable you to know what is 
in the heart of man. Thirdly, you wish to under- 
stand yourself. No book will teach you upon this 

18 



206 TEE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

point like the Bible. Stand before it as a mirror ; and 
you will see there, not only your good traits, but 
errors, follies, and sins, which you did not imagine 
were there until now. Fourthly, you desire to make 
constant improvement. Go then to the Bible. It 
not only shows the way of all progress, but it incites 
you to go forward. It opens before you a path lead- 
ing up and still upward, along which good angels will 
cheer you, and God liimself will lend you a helping 
hand. 

Do you doubt the value of this book as a practical 
manual and guide ? Read its history ; for century 
upon century the most diverse characters have found 
in its varied contents, not indeed a set of literal rules, 
adapted to their separate cases ; but, what is far better, 
they have found in it a moral Mentor, the business 
man's companion, the mechanic's teacher, and the 
artist's model. Would you live right ? Here is a 
book of pattern lives. Do you wish to journey safely 
to the end of all things ? This is your guide-book. 
It has been food to the hungry, and to the thirsty a 
living spring ; it has furnished a staff for the feeble, 
and songs of conoratulation to the victorious warfarer. 
In the words of Coleridge, " Good and holy men, the 
kingly spirits of history, enthroned in the hearts of 
mighty nations, have borne witness to its influences; 
and have declared it beyond compare the most perfect 



THE BIBLE— WHY TO BE READ. 207 

instrument, the 'only adequate organ of humanity ; — 
by which the individual is privileged to rise above 
nimself, to leave behind and lose his dividual, phan- 
tom self, in order to find his true self in the eternal 
* I Am,' the everliving Word." 

To multitudes of our race, this book is not only 
the foundation of their religious faith', but their daily 
practical guide. It has taken hold of the world as no 
other book ever did. Not only is it read in all Chris- 
tian pulpits, but it enters every habitation from the 
palace to the cottage. It is the golden chain which 
binds hearts together at the marriage altar ; it con- 
tains the sacred formula for the baptismal rite. It 
blends itself with our daily conversation; and is the 
silver thread of all our best reading, giving its hue, 
more or less distinctly, to book, periodical, and daily 
paper. When the good mother parts with her dear 
boy, other volumes may be placed in his hands, but 
we are sure that, with tearful prayers, she will fold 
among his apparel a Bible. On the seas it goes with 
the mariner, as his spiritual chart and compass ; and 
on the land it is to untold millions their pillar-cloud 
by day, their fire-column by night. In the closet 
and in the street, amid temptations and trials, this is 
man's most faithful attendant, and his strongest shield. 
It is our lamp through the dark valley ; and the radi- 
ator of our best light from the solemn and unseen 
future. 



208 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

Who, then, shall own a neglected Bible ? What 
young man will not make this volume his study and 
joy; — pondering its pages with a deep and unutter- 
able conviction, that they not only open up a kingdom 
to come, refulgent with heavenly glories, but they are 
profitable for this present world ; rich with regal gifts, 
for all who will accept them in the life that now is ? 

If the Bible is so much to man, the aroma of his 
intellectual being, his inspirer and guide in active life, 
and the light of his dying pillow, — to be safely neg- 
lected at no period or point of any man's life, — with 
what care, no less than zeal, should it be read ! Let 
it be done systematically, and you have but to read 
three chapters a day through the week, and five on 
the Sabbath, to complete the whole volume in a single 
year. And recollect that the newspaper you daily 
read contains twice, if not thrice, this amount of 
matter. 

But let not its pages be merely passed over by the 
eye. To one with this book in his hand, the ques- 
tions are specially pertinent, How readest thou ? 
" Understandest thou what thou readest ? " If you 
do not understand any passage before you, seek, like 
the Ethiopian, some Philip to guide you. Join a 
Bible class, if possible ; for the light of many minds 
is here needed. Use some good commentary ; con- 
sult, indeed, all such books within your reach. Let 



THE BIBLE— WHY TO BE READ. 209 

any one peruse a few verses, day by day, in this 
methodical and intelligent manner, seeking constantly 
light from the divine Author of revelation, and the 
Bible can never be to him a dull book. On the con- 
trary, new illustrations of its beauty and power will 
every day spring up before him, like the June blade 
and flower; and early and late, he will go to it with 
an ever fresh interest. Ponder what you thus read ; 
and it will attune your heart to the Bible's God ; it 
will stir the springs of conscience, and blend the 
stream of its all-fertilizing pages with your daily life 
and character. 

18* * 



X. 

MOKAL PEEVENTIVES. 

IN LOOKING' over the great world of men and 
affairs, it sometimes strikes one like a vast pene- 
tentiary, — a gathering of persons who have all gone 
out of the way of moral health and spiritual life and 
peace. Our farm schools' and institutions for there- 
form of offenders, are full to overflowing. And hence, 
in another aspect, we are living amid a grand array 
of remedial agencies and restoratives ; the earth is a 
mighty hospital, in which the sick, the lame, and the 
impotent are lying by a moral pool, waiting for some 
angel to stir the waters and heal their maladies. 

But the friends of humanity ought, instead of 
standing by this sad spectacle idle observers, or 
spending all their thoughts and efforts to restore 
the guilty and cure the diseased, to be doing more 
to prevent the increase and perpetuity of moral evil. 
That is the point and purpose of this chapter. Its 
motto is, Prevention better than remedies. It was 
said of Fisher Ames, that " he needed not the smart 

(210) 



MORAL PREVENTIVES. 211 

of folly to make him wise." The true way of life's 
moral husbandry is, not to wait until the weeds of sin 
overgrow the soul, but to preoccupy the ground with 
plants from the garden of God. 

Hear the old Levitical law : " With all thine offer- 
ings thou shalt offer salt." That is, thy mind must 
be incorrupt, thy heart sincere, thy whole character 
seasoned by thine oblations ; then will thy worship be 
acceptable to God. Have a principle within, that 
shall preserve you against moral taint and decompo- 
sition. Do not wait until you feel the sting of guilt, 
but begin right. 

The first thing to this end, is to cherish true aims. 
Resolve to be, rather than seem. Daniel Webster, 
when a young man, was once offering a letter for the 
mail, when he paid more than the size of his letter 
seemed to demand. " I should not have noticed the 
difference," said the post-master. " I should," said 
young Webster ; " I have always felt it is better to be 
honest than merely appear so." Let one graduate 
his course of life by that noble sentiment, and he too, 
if not intellectually distinguished, in the best sense of 
the words, will make a great man. 

Common minds care only for the present day ; the 
elevated aim to live grandly, to live in favor with 
their own difficult spirits. This purpose will give on£ 
decision, energy, power of achievement, unlimited 



212 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

success. He who has salt in himself, makes up his 
mind what he will do, and what he will be. He re- 
solves to cherish motives on which God and man may- 
look with approbation ; and he then sets himself 
calmly to work. What man has done, man can do ; 
that is his watchword. 

Among the surest preventives of evil, is self-respect. 
I do not counsel pride and conceit. But this is what 
you need, to stand as high in your own moral estima- 
tion as you desire to stand in that of others. You 
are anxious for a good name ; but why should you 
wish to appear well in the world ? " Because," 
you reply, " it will be for my interest." But have 
you any interest in doing wrong and concealing it ? 
In the end, be sure your sin will find you out ; and 
your interest will then suffer on and on. Do you 
wish to'stand well for the sake of your own happi- 
ness ? Then, I ask, is it for one's happiness to carry 
about an accusing conscience ? If you do not inward- 
ly and truly respect yourself; if you would despise 
in another what you are doing in secret ; and in real- 
ity do despise your own motives of conduct, — what 
can the confidence and the praises of thousands avail 
you? He who has no true peace, when he thinks 
of the course he is daily pursuing, is building his 
house, not on gold, silver, and precious stones, but 
hay, wood, and stubble. 



MORAL PREVENTIVES. 213 

We need, in early life, to feel constantly a sense 
of our individuality. " What am I, " says the youth 
sometimes, " among so many ? All I can do is to 
float along with the mass, and think and act as they 
do." No ; instead of doing this, take yourself out 
of the mass, and look at what you really are ; created, 
not to be a mere atom of some majestic structure, — 
your identity crushed out by the surroundings of your 
position, — but a living soul, separate from every 
other soul in existence, with distinct traits and offices, 
methods of influence peculiar to yourself, and a mis- 
sion of your own in this world. 

For a young man to disregard this great truth, is to 
sow the Avind and reap the whirlwind. It may lead 
him to give himself up to be cog or tooth in some 
wheel of a sect or a party ; it may make him follow, 
— feeble creature, — a knot of vile companions to the 
dens of sensuality ; it often compels one to be profane, 
vulgar, a wine-bibber, a spendthrift of time, money, 
health, and morals in the haunts of the blackest vice 
and guilt. Why, as we look on, we ask, will not that 
young man stand up in his own personality, and say 
firmly, " I also am a man ; I will not serve your 
gods." 

And yet, there may be a false independence. In 
youth the feelings are ardent, and prompt us to pre- 
cipitate action. We hence sometimes press forward 



214 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

on the impulse of the moment, before plans are ma- 
tured, or consequences foreseen. We are, perhaps, 
warned by some friend ; but the word is unheeded. 
" We can see and judge for ourselves ; it is not as 
you say. Caution, prudence, forecast, they are but 
old men's whims." There is an idea that it is better 
to go wrong than be dictated by others. All honor 
to a true independence of character. But I must 
think that he, who, rather than hearken to his friends, 
will peril, not only his fortune, but his honor and 
virtue, is not independent, but self-willed. He has 
that spirit which brought Milton's hero down from 
glory to shame and woe. " It is wise," said an 
heathen, " to be taught even by an enemy." What, 
then, are his prospects who sets at naught the coun- 
sels of friends, who deems it derogatory to his pride to 
do a good thing, if it have been advised or suggested 
by another ? 

Let me caution the young against a habit of reck- 
lessness. If it be perilous to say, " I don't care," ft 
is doubly so to rush on with the plea, " I did not 
mind." This is the root of a multitude of transgres- 
sions. Let it grow into a habit, and it will under- 
mine the whole character. " He who is idle and 
frivolous in his apprenticeship," says another, "will, 
in nine cases out of ten, be an inferior workman ; 
he will stand low as a journeyman, and still lower 



MORAL PREVENTIVES. 215 

when he sets up for himself." If you do not attend 
to what lies before you, you can never take advantage 
of opportunities ; and will never do what you engage 
in, to the best of your abilities. Many pass through 
life without even a consciousness of where they are, 
and what they are doing. They gaze on whatever 
lies directly before them, u in fond amusement lost." 
Human life is a watchtower. It is the clear purpose 
of God that every one, — the young especially, — 
should take their stand on this tower. Look, listen, 
learn, wherever you go, wherever you tarry. Some- 
thing is always transpiring to reward your attention. 
Let your eyes and ears be always open, and you will 
often observe, in the slightest incidents, materials of 
advantage and means of personal improvement. 

The salt of character is a good courage. Some, 
because th'ev have once or twice met with rebuffs, 
sink in discouragement. Such should know, that our 
own errors may often teach us more than the grave 
precepts of others. I counsel the young man never 
to despair. If he can make nothing by any work 
that presents itself now, he can at least make himself; 
or, what is equivalent, he can save himself from the 
sure death of a pusillanimous, halting, irresolute spirit. 
Never be east down by misfortunes. If a spider break 
his web, over and over he will mend it again. And 
do not you fall behind the very insect on your walls. 



216 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

If the sun is going down, look up to the stars ; if earth 
is dark, keep your eve on heaven. With the pres- 
ence and promise of God, we can bear up under any 
thing ; and should press on, and never falter or fear. 

Never lose your faith in God and goodness. That 
once lost, we become irreligious, living not for the 
eye of our Father above, but for the mere favor of 
man. Hence, too, our young men sometimes, cher- 
ishing doubts of the soul and immortality, live for the 
body alone : plunging into sensuality, the votaries of 
appetite and sin. Let one yield to this skeptical tem- 
per, and he will respect talent before virtue : and fall 
down and worship the man of great intellect, how- 
ever destitute of principle. A Caesar then stands on 
his scale higher than a Fenelon. Let a man make a 
splendid oration, and, though his life be scarred over, 
as Herod's was, with incest, rapine, and carnage, the 
shout goes up, " It is the voice of a god, and not of 
a man. , ' 

With equal earnestness would I warn you against 
cherishing impure thoughts and feelings. We are apt 
to imagine that, so long as we do no wrong deed, and 
speak no wrong word, our character is safe. But 
whence spring the wrong word and deed ? Always 
from a wrong thought or feeling. Xo man commits 
murder until he has meditated on that crime. The 
confession of the recent murderer of young Converse, 



MORAL PREVENTIVES. 217 

at Maiden, showed that conscience is not strangled in 
a moment ; but its vitality is destroyed step by step. 
Had he been habituated to the control of his passions, 
and the suppression of evil thoughts, he would never 
have lifted his hand against that helpless and innocent 
boy. There is a record of other and minor offences ; 
of the cup, the gaming table, or other secret vices, 
which, if disclosed, would betray the root of that 
awful deed. No one becomes base and degraded be- 
fore man, until he has first inwardly degraded himself. 
u Out of the heart proceed the things which defile a 
man." Until we go into that seat and centre of our 
actions, we have laid no sure foundation for the right 
and the pure. The counsel of all others most needed 
in youth is, govern your thoughts. u Evil thoughts," 
as another well says, u are worse enemies than lions 
and tigers ; for one can get out of the way of wild 
beasts, but bad thoughts win their way everywhere." 
And so of the passions. Youth is easily excited, 
and hence often betrayed into error and sin. Look 
at the perils of anger. In the annals of homicide, we 
see victims of passion, whose whole subsequent life 
was embittered by a single blow struck in wrath. It 
should be our life-task to be mild and gentle. Con- 
trol the spirit ; subdue the voice ; for tones even help 
or harm in this matter. Calmness is always dignified ; 
it carries power with it ; it often rises to magnanimity. 

19 



218 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

It will gain respect and insure confidence where even 
genius itself, if fitful and overflowing with wrath, 
will inspire pity, if not contempt. 

A great moral safeguard is habits of industry. 
This promotes our happiness ; and so leaves no crav- 
ings for those vices which lead on and down to sin 
and its untold miseries. Industry conducts to pros- 
perity. Fortunes may, it is true, be won in a day ; 
but they may also be lost in a day. It is only the 
hand of the diligent that makes one permanently rich. 
The late Mr. Ticknor of Boston, a model merchant 
and publisher, in his last hours spoke of the value of 
a steady pursuit of one's legitimate business. He 
commented on the insane traffic in gold at that mo- 
ment, as ruinous to the country and the parties en- 
gaged in it. u The pathway of its track," said he v 
" is strewn with wrecks of men and fortunes ; but few 
have failed of success who were honest, earnest, and 
patient." He attributed his own success to his cling- 
ing to his resolution to avoid all speculations, and 
steadily pursuing the business of his choice. He had 
been bred to the trade of a broker ; but thought it as 
dangerous as the lottery and dice. And no young man 
could fail to be warned by him, who had seen the 
frenzy that comes over the " Brokers' Board " in such 
a city as New York. " A Babel of conflicting sounds, 
— a hot oven of excitement" is that board; it is a 



MORAL PREVENTIVES. 219 

moral storm which few can withstand long. How 
much wiser is he who keeps out of this whirlpool, 
content with an honest calling, reasonable gains, and, 
I will add, the quiet scenes of a country life. 

Many a lad might have saved himself from mer- 
cantile ruin, by choosing some good trade, residing in 
a pleasant town, and there enjoying a tranquil and 
prolonged life. Strange that so few see this, and that 
the multitude forget that the country promises health 
and years and an escape from grinding poverty ; that 
intelligence is there, and virtue is there, and happi- 
ness is there. Passing strange if, seeing this, they 
thrust all these aside, and rush to the city, in the 
maddening race for gold, a race in which the ninety- 
nine fail, and one only in the hundred, for a long life, 
succeeds. 

Industry is the basis of reputation and credit. 
" The sound of your hammer at five in the morning, 
or nine at night,'' said Franklin, " heard by a credi- 
tor, will make him easy six months longer ; but if he 
sees you at a billiard-table, or hears your voice at a 
tavern, when you should be at your work, he sends 
for his money the next day." 

Industry is the best preventive of vice. The mo- 
ment we are unemployed, the evil spirit begins to 
whisper to us some temptation. I heard the Chief 
Magistrate of our Commonwealth say, that not less 



220 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

than thirty-five boys, who had passed through the 
State Reform School at West-borough, were to be 
found in the State Prison. And why? Because 
when they left that place, they were at once destitute 
of employment. " Idleness," says a quaint old au- 
thor, "is the broom that sweepeth clean all good 
thoughts ou'te of the howse of the mynde, making it 
fit to receive the seven devils." It is the vicious idler 
who robs and murders, that he may get gain ; # it is 
the merry idler who resorts to the cup and the dice- 
box ; it is the sensual idler who lurks for purity to 
defile. 

Industry is often a substitute for great abilities. 
Said the late Judge Smith, " Labor, well directed, is 
better than mere talent." No man is doing more to 
advance the great interests of education, temperance, 
and good morals in general, than he who promotes the 
industry of the community by working steadily him- 
self, and furnishing others a regular occupation. The 
operatives of Sheffield, England, by working three 
days in the week, can keep their families from starva- 
tion ; this they often do, and spend the other four 
days at the beer shops. In such a community morals 
are, and must be, degraded. A life of idleness is, 
usually, a life of sin ; it is at best a life of utter useless- 
ness. In the parable of the sheep and the goats, the 
king condemns those on the left hand for their indo- 



MORAL PREVENTIVES. 221 

lence, because they have not done good to the sick 
and the needy. 

It is surprising how much one will accomplish sim- 
ply by beginning life with a steady, unremitting en- 
ergy. " In looking back on my youth," says Hugh 
Miller, " I see that a right use of the opportunities of 
instruction afforded me in early youth, would have 
made me a scholar ere my twentieth year ; and have 
saved me at least ten years of my life." Yes, and we 
may add, it would undoubtedly have saved him from 
that awful deed into which he was at last driven by 
overwork, by forcing himself to make up in manhood 
for the waste of his precious youth. 

Not a few, in these days, rely on the support of 
their parents, instead of starting resolutely in life for 
themselves. The children of the affluent do not be- 
gin life as their fathers did, with small means and 
economical habits ; but they begin where their fathers 
left off. They live on a scale graduated by the accu- 
mulations of others, and not by their own. The boy 
who is too proud, or too listless, to do the drudgery of 
the porter, will seldom make a good salesman or a re- 
sponsible supervisor in a store. A young man cannot 
learn too soon, that to carry a hod, or drive a cart, is 
more respectable than to ridicule every thing as " small 
business " which does not aspire to the dignity of the 
Astors and the Stewarts. A morbid ambition to 



222 THE BLADE AXD THE EAR. 

appear above one's proper station, is the ruin of 
thousands. 

Industry is the parent, too. of independence. He 
who never stops to ask. " Why will not some one help 
me?" but sets out and helps himself, cannot fail of 
success. It is not seldom those who lean idly upon 
others that complain most of bad fortune. He who 
has a single object before him. and keeps to it. is not 
the man who whines about ill-success. If a youth is 
indolent and vacillating ; if he stands waiting for some- 
thing to turn up in his favor : if he loiters about, 
telling us he sees no opening;, he should not expect, 
success. Let him adopt the old Roman maxim, 
•* Either I will find a way. or I will make one." If 
no good chance presents itself, resolve to make one for 
yourself. If you cannot get the highest position you 
desire, take such a one for the present as you can 
have. Any thing rather than protracted idleness. It 
is amazing what results. flow from the simplest means 
when adhered to resolutely. A farmer in Western 
Xew York, who had a noble band of sons, was asked 
how he managed to make them all do so well. His 
brief and blunt reply was. " I make them go to bed 
tired. '' 

There is salt, too, in the virtue of economy. Let 
a youth shun the self-styled fashionable circles of the 
city. If once their fascination is upon you, however 



MORAL PREVENTIVES. 223 

pure you now are, or imagine yourself, you will not 
be safe for a moment. Your employer will lose con- 
fidence in you from the moment he sees your taste 
lies in that direction. Once enter the charmed sphere 
of such associations, and appetite is inflamed, extrav- 
agance and display master the spirit, and the retribu- 
tion is as sure as the rising sun. In the quaint words 
of poor Richard, " Pride that dines on vanity, sups 
on contempt. Pride breakfasted with Plenty, dined 
with Poverty, and supped with Infamy." 

I name as another guardian of Virtue, well-fixed 
habits. Few are aware of the measureless power of 
habit. You have only to do a thing twice or thrice, and 
you find yourself constrained to repeat it on and still 
on. Yield to a great temptation to-day, and you will 
be borne down by a smaller one to-morrow. Say to 
a boisterous passion, No, and its next approach will 
be like the gentle breeze compared to the gale. Once 
cease to be on good terms with conscience, and vio- 
late the sanctity of truth, honor, or honesty a little, 
and your downward path becomes more and more 
easy. Hence, there is no moral safety except in re- 
sisting the first symptom of declension from the right. 
Drop the reins of self-government, and you will be 
dashed against the rocks of moral ruin and woe. He 
who consciously takes the first step in vice, surrenders 
his title-deed to a reliable virtue. Do, therefore, here 



224 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

and now, only what you will be willing to do there 
and forever. 

In selecting an occupation, consider the power of habit 
in reconciling one to a pursuit from which he at first may 
shrink with distaste. The young man fixes his eye, per- 
haps, on a clerkship in some importing or commission 
house, and thinks there only can he be sure to be in 
the way to an elevated and successful position. But 
look at the case ; he must first spend years in the low 
work of learning to nail up boxes, carrying letters to 
the post-office, or filing letters, and, possibly, learning 
to make an invoice of goods sold. He is still incom- 
petent to keep a set of books ; and is not wanted to 
sell goods. And now he must either remain on a 
sum barely sufficient to pay his board and clothe him ; 
or leave his place, and begin in some small store at the 
lowest round of business for himself. How much 
better to have chosen some good trade, and made him- 
self master of it ; when, at twenty-two, he could with 
certainty have earned high wages, and attained in a 
few years an honorable position for himself and his 
family. Some of the wealthiest and most respected 
citizens in our larger places, chose this course in their 
youth ; and their lives have been crowned with a far 
higher honor than the thousands who have crowded 
our cities only to struggle with failures, obscurity, and, 
at last, a disappointed life. 



MORAL PREVENTIVES. 225 

Among the best protectives of charaeter, I name a 
deep and steady attachment to home. Many imag- 
ine this should have no weight with them where 
money-making is concerned. They leave their coun- 
try homes, infatuated with a desire to acquire property 
in a day. They go, like the gambler, to the table, 
and stake virtue, happiness, and life itself in the sharp 
struggle for gold. Meantime, they know that intelli- 
gence, purity, health, and peace are in the country ; . 
and that there we are nearest to God. They know 
how many sacrifice the joys of their early home only 
to lose property, purity, aye life itself in the city. 
But all thought of this is swept away in the insane 
greed for gain. 

Few would conduct themselves thus, did they reflect 
how much, even though they prosper, they must sac- 
rifice in quitting a father's roof. There is springing 
up in this country a thirst for exciting pleasures, and 
an aversion to the simple, pure joys of home, which 
may well alarm us. Our families are not quiet and 
happy ; the older members look haggard and care- 
worn ; and the younger portion flee from them for 
their recreation and enjoyment to haunts of question- 
able purity. We need the bond of home songs, and 
the family festivals of England and Germany, to bind 
our children and youth to the fireside. We have 
premiums for cattle and cloths, and the ten thousand 



226 THE BLADE AND THE EAR 

inventions of mechanical skill. I hope to hear soon 
of a prize offered the man or woman who will point 
out the best method of making home dear to the 
young man. 

There is no one habit more important in early life 
as a moral preventive than a regard for the Sabbath. 
Take the lowest view of the subject ; man needs one 
day in seven for rest, both of body and mind. Dr. 
Sewall said, that, for several years, he had been inti- 
mate with men in public life at Washington, whose 
duties were severe and pressing. Some habitually sus- 
pended their public functions on the Sabbath ; while 
others continued them on uninterruptedly. The one 
class would rise on Monday with all their powers re- 
freshed and invigorated ; while the other came to 
their duties with body and mind jaded, ' and out of 
tone. " I have no hesitation,' * said he, " in giving it 
as my opinion, that if the Sabbath were universally 
observed as a day of renovation and of rest from sec- 
ular occupations, far more work of body and mind 
would be accomplished, and be better done ; more 
health would be enjoyed ; with more of wealth and 
independence ; and we should have far less of crime 
and poverty and suffering." 

No one who has examined this subject, can doubt 
that the Sabbath touches every human interest, not 
only religious, but moral, social, physical, and eco- 



MORAL PREVENTIVES. 227 

nomical. Chief Justice Hale said that, so far as he 
knew, criminals began their guilty career always by 
violating the Sabbath. " All the days in the week," 
says a writer, " have not so dreadful a power in pro- 
moting intemperance, among young men especially, 
as the Sabbaths with the grog-shops open. If they 
are well spent, they are like bridges over the whole 
week's temptations and dangers." 

In shunning the old Puritan rigor, we imagine we 
may go as far as we please to the other extreme. But 
I cannot think that, to avoid the rock of a supersti- 
tious observance of the day, — forbidding a word or a 
smile that was not forced and unnatural, — we may 
rush on the opposite rock, and employ the Sabbath in 
regulating our accounts, writing business letters, walk- 
ing through our shops, and talking of our secular 
affairs. You do not then labor with your hands, it is 
true ; but are your thoughts occupied as they should 
be ? Have you forgotten your machinery and oper- 
atives and fabrics, your losses and gains ? To keep 
the Sabbath is not certainly to lay schemes for new 
buildings, or to plan our work and our wages ; iUis 
not either to spend the whole day in utter vacuity of 
mind ; nor yet in so indulging our appetites as to sub- 
ject the spiritual to the animal nature ; no, nor yet to 
shut one's self up in retirement, if it be only to read 
the last novel. Many a man, by a long course of such 



228 THE BLADE AXD THE EAR. 

violations, has been driven at last to insanity, and 
some even to suicide. A moral suicide lie surely 
commits, who robs God of the special thought and 
service he requires on the consecrated day. 

Let the young man form early, and never intermit, 
the habit of regular attendance on public worship. 
Why spend the entire day in frivolous conversation, 
or in habits which enervate the body, and enfeeble, 
if they do not vitiate, the mind ? One should attend 
church, independently of any special good he may de- 
rive from the sermon. " I always go to church," said 
a young man to me lately, " even when I am where I 
do not like the preacher, for its general influence on 
my mind and character." Washington was always 
constant at the sanctuary. If he had a friend stop- 
ping with him, at the sound of the bell he would take 
his hat, and say to his guest, '• It is my practice al- 
ways to attend church. I should be happy in your 
company, if you desire to join me." Some imagine it 
a matter of perfect indifference, whether they go or 
remain at home. But public worship is no arbi- 
trary institution. It is not only enjoined in the 
Bible, but, like society, government, language, and 
the arts, it has its roots in human nature. Man is a 
religious being ; and he is also a social being. What, 
then, more natural than these hours of mingled prayer 
and praise ? Some think this a day for lying on the 



MORAL PREVENTIVES. 229 

pillow, and otherwise pampering the body. Some re- 
gard it as a day to ride, or labor in the garden ; and 
others think the man of toil may spend it in mental 
dissipation. But, though we give the day to physical 
inactivity, we can and should find a true rest in em- 
ploying the heart in religious exercises, and the mind 
in profitable reading. 

There is an alarming disease that may be called 
Sunday sickness, which comes on Saturday evening, 
rages through the system all day Sunday, and does 
not intermit its terrible work until breakfast is over 
on Monday. Then, happily for the patient, it usually 
vanishes as suddenly as it came. It is seldom, I be- 
lieve, fatal ; yes, it is fatal to all church going ; and I 
hope, therefore, our physicians may devise for it some 
speedy and efficacious remedy. 

The weather, too, has an appalling power on the 
Sabbath. It can be encountered on the week day ; 
but who can meet a storm, or even the chance of one, 
on this day ? I think he would be a moral benefac- 
tor of his race who should invent an umbrella that 
would not only shed water on the six week days, but 
also on the seventh ; and a pair of rubber shoes, and 
an overcoat, that had this master quality, would send 
fulness to many a now empty pew, and give joy to 
many a disheartened preacher. 

Among moral preventives I name a sincere, ever- 

20 



230 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

burning desire to do good. There is no such inlet of 
vice as selfishness. The inebriate, the gambler, the 
debauchee, the thief, and the murderer start on their 
terrific courses from this one great goal. Almost any 
good work, therefore, which takes us out of ourselves 
is to be prized and sought. They who would com- 
mence and cling to the high tasks of excellence, must 
bind on their frontlet the Apostle's motto, " No man 
liveth to himself." 

We are placed in a world where there is no position 
except for those who are willing to work for others. 
The great law of usefulness pervades the universe. 
The sun shines, the rain descends, the seasons come 
and go, all for the sake of doing good. Every pro- 
duct of the globe calls on man to hold out to his 
brother man the hand of a friendly commerce. The 
grain of the West, and the spices and silks of the 
East, the cotton of the South and the fabrics of the 
North, bind us together in one great chain of constant 
interdependence. To be selfish and exclusive, is to 
rush against the thick bosses of nature, and defy her 
every beneficent principle. 

An individual died a few years since, worth some 
two millions, who paid daily twelve and a half cents 
for his dinner in a cellar, and lost his life by a cold 
contracted through saving fifty cents by taking his 
passage in a miserable schooner, instead of riding in 



MORAL PREVENTIVES. 231 

the cars. I call such a man a moral monster. Con- 
trast his niggardly course with that of such a man as 
the late Joshua Bates, that true patriot, and benefac- 
tor, public and private, who did not wait before dis- 
tributing his property until he made his last will and 
testament, but gave while he lived. " Give while 
you live," that should be the watchword with old and 
young. I knew a young man who began his mercan- 
tile life with giving in proportion as he acquired 
property. Every year he bestowed a definite sum in 
doing good to others ; and he died at twenty-eight, 
worth some forty-two thousand dollars ; and the year 
previous gave fifteen hundred dollars of his income 
in charities. Systematic beneficence, — young man, 
begin with it in the beginning, and continue it to the 
close of your life. Let others squander their earnings 
on sensual indulgences ; but while you partake with 
moderation in all rational enjoyments, lay by you in 
store every year, as God prospers you, a fit sum for 
doing good. 

To gifts of money, add those of personal services. 
When you wake in the morning, not only think of 
plans to enhance your possessions, but whom you can 
help, in any way or degree, by your purse, by your 
hands, your prayers, or your sympathies. " These 
are my poor," said a seaman's preacher ; have you 
always your poor, your friendless, needy and fallen 



232 THE BLADE AND THE EAR. 

ones ; consider that they belong to yon ; and let not 
the cry of the unrelieved ever rise up in judgment 
against you. Do good on every scale, large or small, 
in your power. Let your sympathies be always on the 
side of freedom and humanity. Whatever benefits 
your country or your race, make that your own cause. 
Bond or free, high or low, the good or the evil, — 
they are all your brother men. Cherish no prejudice 
against any class whatever, but take all to your heart ; 
and, as you are able, give them a helping hand. 

But, while you are generous, see to it that you are 
also just. Do not give away what does not belong to 
you. Let me warn you, on account of its moral bear- 
ings, against debt. Nothing more effectually robs one 
of his best energies, takes the bloom from his cheek 
and peace from his pillow, than pecuniary obligations. 
And that is not all, nor the worst ; debt is a foe to a 
man's honesty. Avoid all meanness ; but shun as a 
pestilence the habit of running thoughtlessly into 
debt. Let your expenses be always short of your in- 
come. And guard against small outlays ; it is " the 
little foxes that spoil the vines." Buy only what you 
need ; and pay as soon as you purchase ; always the 
less credit the better. Debt leads to extravagance, to 
fraud, to forgery, and often to suicide. 

And now, what more can I say ? The beginning, 
the course, and the termination of all excellence are 



MORAL PREVENTIVES. 233 

involved in the precept, have a root in yourself. 
Rely not upon others ; but let there be in your own 
bosom a calm, deep, decided, and all-pervading prin- 
ciple. Look first, midst, and last to God, to aid you 
in the great task before you ; and then plant your 
foot on the right. Let others live as they please, — 
tainted by low tastes, debasing passions, a moral pu- 
trefaction. Be you the salt of the earth ; incorrupt 
in your deeds, in your inmost thoughts and feelings. 
Nay more, incorruptible, like virtue herself ; your 
manners blameless ; your views of duty, not narrow, 
false, and destructive, but a savor of life to all around 
you. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned 
with the salt of truth, honor, manliness, and benevo- 
lence. Wait not for the lash of guilt to scourge you 
to the path of God and heaven. Be of the prudent 
who foresee the evil and hide themselves from it ; and 
not of the simple, who pass on and are punished. 

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